Organ builder A. Schuster & Sohn

Orgelbau A. Schuster & Sohn is an organ building company founded in 1869 with headquarters in Olbersdorf near Zittau . The current owner is master organ builder Benjamin Welde.

history

The organ building company was founded in 1869 by Andreas Schuster (1833–1918) in Zittau, who had learned the organ building trade from Leopold Kohl in Bautzen and was co-owner of his organ building workshop from 1867 at the latest. The first order for organ builder A. Schuster & Sohn was the repair and rearrangement of the Tamitius organ in the Protestant church in Reichenau . In 1870 the first new organ (grinding shop) for the church in Großhennersdorf took place. Between 1893 and 1899 A. Schuster was able to build 6 slider chest organs in Jamaica and Surinam , all of which have been preserved. Later his sons Georg and Ernst August joined their father's company. From 1900 Georg Schuster was the owner of the company. From 1898 to around 1960 the Schuster company then built organs with pneumatic pocket shutters. The area of activity was extended from Upper Lusatia and today's Poland and Bohemia to the Ore Mountains . After Georg died early, the company was called "A. Schuster & Sohn". The workshop moved twice within Zittau and was finally on Löbauer Straße until it was relocated to Olbersdorf.

In 1928 Georg and Richard Schuster (sons of Ernst August) took over the company. In 1947 Georg's son Siegfried joined his father's company and in 1963 took over the management together with Gerhard Schuster (son of Richard). In 1953, Schuster took over the business of the Magdeburg master organ builder Brandt and his colleague Erwin Lägel (place of residence Eilsleben ). From then on he worked for Schuster in the greater Magdeburg area.

Siegfried Schuster ran the business alone from 1987 and died on August 15, 1994. In the 125 years of its existence, the Schuster company built over 240 organs and made a significant contribution to the organ landscape, especially in Upper Lusatia.

Benjamin Welde passed the master craftsman's examination in 1992 and became the owner of the company on April 1, 1995, but it continues the traditional name. Welde was previously an apprentice and journeyman at A. Schuster & Sohn, where he acted as managing director between March 1994 and March 1995.

In addition to new constructions, A. Schuster & Sohn organ builders are also active in the areas of repair, restoration and conversion. The company headquarters was relocated from Zittau to Olbersdorf in 2002.

List of works (selection)

The Roman number indicates the number of manuals, a capital "P" indicates an independent pedal and the Arabic number in the penultimate column indicates the number of sounding registers.

year	place	building	Manuals	register	Remarks
1870	Großhennersdorf	church	II / P	23	Overhauled in 1999 by A. Schuster & Sohn, most of the pipes had to be replaced
1876	Dürrhennersdorf	church	II / P	20th	Preserved in its original condition, overhauled by A. Schuster & Sohn in 1994
1898	Bertsdorf	church	II / P	22nd	Overhauled in 1998 by A. Schuster & Sohn
1901	Hörnitz	Hörnitz Church	II / P	25th	Overhauled in 1999 by A. Schuster & Sohn, missing prospect pipes replaced since the First World War
1905	Nauwalde	Village church	II / P	16
1930	Zittau	Johanniskirche	III / 2 P	84	Schuster largest organ, 50 stops from the previous organ Jehmlich taken
1936	Seifhennersdorf	Kreuzkirche	IV / P	71
1952	Berlin-Weissensee	St. Joseph	III / P	43
1953	Dresden- Seidnitz	Nazareth Church	II	14th	the company's first major mechanical organ
1957	Magdeburg	(Holy Spirit Church ) / Cathedral / St. Nicolai	II / P	27	built for the Holy Spirit Church , as it was blown up in 1959, not installed there and instead set up in the cathedral. Relocated to St. Nicolai in 1975 and reduced in size, worn out in 2019, usable registers being integrated into the new building
1958/59	Magdeburg	St. Sebastian	III / P	47	5 pedal stops and a large part of the box drawers of the previous organ ( Ernst Röver , 1916) integrated, organ sold to Debica in 2001
1968	Berlin - Prenzlauer Berg	Convent church of the Sankt-Josefsheimes	II / P	21st	Brochure by Fritz Leweke
1972	Wernigerode	St. Sylvestri Church	II / P	26th	Repair, reconstruction and extension of the organ built in 1790 by Balthasar Georg Christoph Jesse (1741–1795) from Halberstadt , which was moved from the village church in Deersheim to the St. Sylvestri church in 1971/1972 , using the pipe material from Friedrich Ladegast built predecessor organ.
1973	Großberndten	St. Peter Paul	I / P	7th
1975	Halle (Saale)	Provost church	II (?) / P	41
1977	Goerlitz	Frauenkirche (Görlitz)	III / P	34
1984	Torgau	City Church	III / P	41
1994	Magdeburg	Wallon Church	II / P	17th
1995	Nordhausen	St. Blasii	III / P	37