Bruno Goebel

Bruno Goebel (born October 6, 1860 in Landsberg , Upper Silesia , † October 20, 1944 in Reitendorf , Sudeten ) was a German organ builder in Königsberg . His workshop created around 200 organs, mainly in East Prussia , but also in West Prussia , Lithuania , Silesia and other places.

Life

Bruno Goebel apprenticed to Anton Czopka in Rosenberg in Silesia around 1875 . In 1882 he was with Urban Kreutzbach's son in Borna, Saxony, after which he went to Heidelberg . Activities followed at Schlag in Silesia and Heinrich Koulen in Strasbourg , where he was made familiar with the peculiarities of French organ building. Goebel married in Silesia in 1886. He then worked at Kuhn in Switzerland and in 1890 at GF Steinmeyer in Bavaria. In 1892 he became managing director of József Angster in the Hungarian Fünfkirchen (Pécs).

In 1894 Bruno Goebel took over the workshop from Johann Rohn in Wormditt in East Prussia. That year he built the first organ in Arnsdorf. In 1898 he took over the organ building institute from Max Terletzki in Königsberg and initially called it Max Terletzki Nachf., Owner B. Goebel, organ building institute . Around 240 new buildings and major renovations were carried out by 1930. Around 1931 the company had to close due to the economic crisis and in 1932 it was continued as Bruno Goebel Söhne . Around 60 other new buildings and conversions were made by 1944.

Sons

His sons worked part-time in the company.

• Joseph (Josef) Goebel (1893–1969), opened his own organ builder in Gdansk in 1920 , and from 1950 in Leichlingen in the Rhineland as an organ builder and author
• Hans Goebel (1897–1965) founded a branch in Kaunas in Lithuania from 1928/29 (as Jonas Goebel ) with around 10 new organs, from around 1935 back in Königsberg, after 1945 in Azpeitia in the Basque Country as an organ builder
• Friedrich (Fritz) Goebel (1900–1971), worked for Jehmlich in Dresden from 1919, back in Königsberg in 1920, with Klais in Bonn from 1925 , managing director of Bruno Goebel Sons in Königsberg from 1937 , and after 1945 back with Klais
• Alfons Goebel (1902–1989), authorized signatory in the Königsberg company since 1932 at the latest

List of works (selection)

There were around 300 new and larger conversions from Bruno Goebel's workshop, plus some repairs and restorations. The actions were mostly pneumatic, and from around 1929 partially electropneumatic. The Goebel organs were known for their beautiful sound.

Many of the organs have been preserved, some of them restored. Some of the alleged new constructions were rebuilding or expansion of existing organs. Organs that are no longer available are in italics .

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1894	Arnsdorf	Catholic Church		II / P	19th	received, Opus 1
1898	Flour sack (pieniężno)	St. Peter and Paul			33	receive
1905	Holy Linden Tree (Święta Lipka)	Pilgrimage church		II / P	36	in a baroque case by Mosengel . 2009 restoration by S. Sauer, Westf.
1906	Lipowitz / Lindenort (Lipowiec)	Protestant church				Church and organ destroyed in 1945
1906	Švėkšna , Lithuania	St. James		II / P	24	Restored in 2007 by Šauklys
1907	Danzig	St. Albrecht		II / P	14th	receive
1909	Braunsberg (Braniewo)	St. Catherine			42	in Mosengel's baroque prospectus from 1726, destroyed in 1945
1909/10	Berlin	St. Mauritius		II / P	32	only surviving larger Goebel organ in Germany
1911	Rosenberg (Olesno), Silesia	St. Michael		II / P	20th	received, Opus 289
1912	Rosenberg (Olesno)	Corpus Christi Church		III / P	37	received, Opus 298
1915	Rastenburg (Kętrzyn)	Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria		II / P	19th	Almost completely preserved, Opus 281
1916	Allenstein (Olsztyn)	Heart of jesus		III / P	44	preserved - organ
1929	Heilsberg (Lidzbark)	St. Peter and Paul			52	received, Opus 365
1929	Wormditt (Orneta)	Catholic Church, today the Church of John the Baptist		III / P	46	Preserved, Opus 366, electropneumatic action, damaged in 1945, partially restored
1931	Panevėžys , Lithuania	Cathedral Christ the King		III / P	25th	38 registers were planned and restored in 2014
1936	Frankfurt am Main	broadcast			44	probably lost
1939/41	Leipzig	Free Church Congregation (Baptists)			6th	originally for the Reichsender Leipzig
1942/43	Berlin	Private			5	Whereabouts?
1944	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Private?				last known instrument

Modifications and repairs

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1915/16	Bogutschütz (Bogucice), Upper Silesia	St. Stephan and Maria		III / P	45	Extension according to Schlag & Söhne (1893/94), declared as a new building, Opus 321, received
1926	Elbing (Elbląg)	Nikolaikirche		III / P	53	Extension of the Terletzki organ (previously III / P, 45)

literature

• Werner Renkewitz , Jan Janca , Hermann Fischer : History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia from 1333 to 1944. Volume II, 2. From Johann Preuss to E. Kemper & Sohn, Lübeck / Bartenstein. Siebenquart, Cologne 2015. pp. 475–587.
• Wolfgang J. Brylla: Bruno Goebel. In: Uwe Pape, Wolfram Hackel, Christhard Kirchner (Eds.): Lexicon of North German Organ Builders. Volume 4. Berlin, Brandenburg and the surrounding area. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2017. p. 176.
• Organ builder Bruno Goebel 70 years. In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau . 1930. p. 26f.

Web links

• Goebel, Bruno Organ Index, individual organs

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Letterhead in memories of the world-famous organ building institute Terletzki-Wittek in Elbing and Terletzki-Goebel in Königsberg
2. ↑ in Lithuania under the opus enumeration of the father, extensively in Girenas Povilionis: Karaliaučiaus master Bruno Goebelio ... In: Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis. 77/78. 2015. pp. 45–63, especially pp. 50–52 PDF
3. ↑ The opus numbers go from 1 to 15 and from 130 to about 437. In addition, works by Max Terletzki were counted as opus 16-130.
4. ↑ "A good organ should be as reliable as a Wittek organ, sound beautiful like a Goebel organ and be cheap like a Novak organ" was the joke among East Prussian organ builders of the time, quoted in Renkewitz, II, 2, p. 484
5. ↑ Kętrzyn, Kościół św. Katarzyny Aleksandryjskiej MusicamSacram, with disposition
6. ↑ Kościół świetych apostolów Piotra i Pawla Musicamsacram, organ with disposition (Polish)
7. ↑ Orneta, Church of John the Baptist MusicamSacram, with disposition (Polish)
8. ↑ Panėvežys, Royal Cathedral Organ Index, with disposition (German)