Ernst Sauer (organ builder)

Organ in Groß Varchow

Carl Adolph Ernst Sauer Sauer (born February 5, 1799 in Karlsburg , † September 13, 1873 in Friedland (Mecklenburg) ) was a German organ builder in Friedland.

life and work

Early years

Ernst Sauer was the tenth child of the Karlsburger blacksmith Ernst Michael Sauer and his wife Maria Christine, née Sassen. At that time, Western Pomerania was still Swedish and did not become part of Prussia until 1815 .

Sauer learned his father's trade and became a master blacksmith. In 1820 he left his homeland and went to Schönbeck near Friedland in Mecklenburg . There he acquired on February 5, 1820 from the blacksmith Christine Elisabeth Salow for 1,800 Rthl. the forge.

On January 5, 1822, he married Johanna Christine Sumke, who was two years his junior and the daughter of a master blacksmith from neighboring Lindow . Both had six daughters and two sons, including Wilhelm Sauer, who later became the organ builder, as the second youngest son .

Organ building in Schönbeck in 1835

Ernst Sauer had a technical, musical or even musical dual talent. In the exclusively agricultural region, nothing was known of training as an instrument maker. Nevertheless, the old smithy should initially have become a self-taught organ building workshop, because a new building was built right next to the church.

When the Schönbeck pastor August Milarch made efforts to build an organ for his village church around 1835 , Sauer set about building an organ with a forged iron mechanism as an autodidact. Sauer is said to have surprised the pastor with the almost finished organ in his barn. The organ set up in the church and newly built by the local blacksmith Sauer was accepted on November 12, 1835 by Neustrelitz court and castle cantor Johann Carl Nicolaus Messing (1800–1870), who, in addition to all the shortcomings of this instrument, did not overlook Sauer's inclination and dexterity presented the result of this investigation to the Grand Ducal Consistory in Neustrelitz and recommended Sauer's support. In the promise of the Grand Duke of December 24, 1835, Mecklenburg-Strelitz's Minister of State August von Oertzen (1777–1837) wrote: that we, with the Sauer's good facilities for organ building, are not averse to giving him a gift of money to syen helpful, provided that he is still in the years where success is expected.

With the inauguration of the organ, a new phase in life began for the 39-year-old master blacksmith Ernst Sauer. In 1836, Grand Duke Georg financed an apprenticeship as an organ builder with Georg Franz Ratzmann in Ohrdruf , Thuringia, for about six months . He was there from April to September 1836, and his family, now with seven children, stayed in Schönbeck. After his return with a certificate from the organ builder Ratzmann, he received a letter of recommendation from the Grand Duke on October 2, 1836 to apply as an organ builder. From then on he referred to himself as a master blacksmith and organ builder. Also on November 11, 1837, he became a master blacksmith and organ builder in the church book entry on the occasion of the baptism of the eighth child . called.

Foundation of the organ building workshop in Friedland in 1838

On March 19, 1838, Ernst Sauer changed his profession. He sold his forge and moved his family, which now had eight children, to the neighboring town of Friedland . There he set up a workshop in which he built organs, but also machines for agricultural use.

Ernst Sauer learned in his early years that the profession of organ builder was also tricky and brought with it unpleasant surprises. Ernst Sauer had rebuilt and expanded the organ in the Neubrandenburg Marienkirche , which was restored by the builder Friedrich Wilhelm Buttel . An incident occurred during the inauguration on August 12, 1841: When playing the organ on the day of the inauguration, a screw pin on a pedal button got stuck and there was an annoying howling sound. Baurath Buttel publicly reprimanded the organ builder. A protracted dispute arose over the question of whether these and other malfunctions were to be blamed on the organ builder or the organist, which from 1845 was also publicly carried out in magazines and pamphlets.

Branch in Deutsch Krone 1845

In 1843 Ernst Sauer acquired the Heinrichswalde manor (today Uniechów) in West Prussia , where he set up another factory for agricultural machines. In 1845, however, he moved his residence and factory to the town of Deutsch Krone (now Wałcz). Soon afterwards he also built organs for West Prussia, the province of Posen and Courland from there . His workshop manager was (at least temporarily) Carl Büttner, who later (before 1856) set up his own business in Courland.

In 1855 Ernst Sauer handed over the management of the branch to his son Wilhelm , who founded his own workshop in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1856 and a branch in Königsberg in East Prussia in 1860.

Organ building in Dobbertin 1853

In 1848 there was a financial emergency in Friedland because his commission agent, the Berlin timber merchant Stuwe, had deprived him of all of his stocks.

With the beginning of the internal restoration of the Dobbertiner monastery church , the Wismar architect Heinrich Thormann made inquiries about the blacksmith and organ builder Ernst Sauer before the contract was awarded to build a new organ in 1853 . At the suggestion of Pastor Wilhelm Wöhler from Ribnitz , who was considered the authority of Mecklenburg in relation to the assessment of organs , the organ builder Sauer in Friedland was commissioned by the state parliament on November 16, 1854 in Malchin to build a new organ. The contract with the organ builder Sauer for the delivery and installation of a new organ for Easter 1857 was concluded with the monastery captain Carl Peter Johann Baron von Le Fort and payment in installments was agreed. With the consecration of the church on October 11, 1857, the organ consecration took place by the Güstrow superintendent Hermann Vermehren in the presence of all preachers of the monastic patronage churches. During the acceptance, Wilhelm Wöhler, who had meanwhile become pastor of Lichtenhagen, noted that Sauer had set up a remote plant here . Because instead of the 22 registers the instrument now had 28 registers. After the additional costs demanded, the monastery head Sauer immediately committed to maintaining the organ for three years free of charge. The organ seemed to continue to cause problems over the years due to various deficiencies and new but not proven inventions in them, and Sauer did not want to admit the deficiencies that were criticized during an overhaul by experts. The monastery administrators commissioned the organ builder Friedrich Hermann Lütkemüller from Wittstock and Ernst Sauer the organist and organ auditor Wangemann from Loitz to carry out a further revision, who elected the organ builder Friedrich Ladegast from Weißenfels as chairman . The result of this revision was not more favorable, Sauer had to remedy the grievances and keep the organ in working order for 5 years. At the state parliament in Sternberg on November 16, 1859, the local committees and monasteries debated the question of the organ up to and including a new building. The protocol of the state parliament required two pages for this. Despite years of repairs, the organ is said to have become almost unusable, which was confirmed by a report by the Wismar music director and organ auditor Julius Georg Ludwig Massmann on March 14, 1892. After 35 years, the Sauer organ in the Dobbertiner monastery church was expanded and on August 13, 1893, a new organ built by the Schlag & Söhne organ building firm in Schweidnitz was inaugurated.

Wilhelm Sauer began as an organ builder

His second youngest son, Wilhelm Sauer , completed his apprenticeship in his father's company and in 1848 worked on the organ in Fürstenberg as an organ builder. From 1851 he went on a hike . In 1855 he took over the management of his father's branch in Deutsch Krone and in 1856 founded his own very successful organ building company in Frankfurt (Oder) .

Ernst Sauer's organ building characteristics

Ernst Sauer was an extraordinarily innovative organ builder who experimented a lot and went his own way. His organ building solutions have not always been good and sensible. His constructions were often unstable and not technically mature, therefore often no high-quality handcrafted instruments. His sponsor, Johann Carl Nicolaus Messing, was almost always on his side, but other organists who checked it occasionally refused to accept it due to technical inadequacies.

The construction of the cone shop organs was remarkable. This new system had only been in use since about 1840. After 1855, Ernst Sauer only built cone wind chests in his organs. This design was also used in Dobbertin. Sauer was one of the first organ builders to build zinc pipes, whereas a tin-lead alloy or wood was usually used to build the pipes. This is certainly due to Sauer's original profession as a blacksmith.

Ernst Sauer ran his workshop until 1870 and died in Friedland in 1873 as a modest and honest man .

List of works

More than 50 new organs by Ernst Sauer are known, mainly in Mecklenburg-Strelitz , but also in the Uckermark , the Neumark , as well as West Prussia and Courland . Some of the organs had technical defects and soon had to be replaced. Today about 12 instruments are still preserved in Germany, often no longer playable, in today's Poland and Latvia one each (Nakło, Landzes). Instruments that are no longer available are in italics.

In the fifth column of the table, the Roman number indicates the number of manuals , a capital "P" indicates an independent pedal , a lower-case "p" indicates an attached pedal and the Arabic number in the sixth column indicates the number of sounding registers .

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1835	Schönbeck	Village church		I.	8th	not received
1837	Advertiser	Village church		I.	10	not received
1839	Mirow	Teachers seminar		II / P	7th	built without pedal couplings, moved to Wulkenzin in 1887 , preserved there
around 1850	Salow	Ev. Village church		I / P	8th	only received housing, unplayable
1840	Schönhausen , Mecklenburg	church				preserved, unplayable
1840	Dolsk (Dębno) , Neumark, today Dębno	Village church				probably not received or in very bad shape
1841	Neubrandenburg	St. Johannis				small organ, not preserved
1841	Woldegk			II	16	not received
1841	Pasenow	Village church		I.	5	not received
around 1842	Brohm at Friedland	church		I.	8th	dismantled, remains preserved
1842	Stargard , Mecklenburg	City Church		II	16	Housing received
1842	Grünow , Mecklenburg	Village church		I / P	10	preserved, unplayable
1843	Golm , Mecklenburg	church		I.	9	not received
1844	Bredenfelde	church		I.	4th	not received
1846	Roggenhagen ( Brunn )	Village church		I.	4th	Housing front received from FW Buttel
1846	Schernow , Neumark, today Czarnów					probably not received or in very bad shape
around 1847	Galenbeck	Village church		I / p	5	receive
1848	Fürstenberg an der Havel , Brandenburg			II	22nd	not received
1849	Schillersdorf	church		I.	5	not received
1850	Rederitz, Neumark					probably not received or in very bad shape
around 1850	Wittenborn	church		I.	5	preserved, unplayable
1852	Landsen , Kurland, today Landze, Latvia	Lutheran Church		I.	6th	with Carl Büttner, without pedal, repairs in 1933 and 1952, probably the only surviving Ernst Sauer organ in Latvia
around 1852	Nakel , Poznan Province, today Nakło nad Notecią	City church, today the church of St. Laurentius		I / P	7th	only known surviving organ from Ernst Sauer in today's Poland
around 1852	Mehrenthin , Neumark, today Mierzęcin					probably not received or in very bad shape
1853	Bleak	church		I.	6th	not received?
1852	Lychen , Uckermark	St. John				with Wilhelm Sauer, unsettled in Gerswalde in 1874, restored by Scbeffler in 1999–2003
1853	Mildenitz	church		I.	5	preserved, unplayable
1853	Zirzow			I.	5	1930 replaced by the Grüneberg organ
1854	Friedland , Mecklenburg	Marienkirche				Case of the previous organ by David Baumann, with Wilhelm Sauer, replaced in 1934 by W. Sauer Organ Builders
1854-1855	Badresch	Village church		I.	9	preserved, unplayable
1854	Krining, West Prussia			I.	4th	probably not received
1854	Blankensee, Mecklenburg			I.	4th	not received
1854	Zernikow			I.	4th	not received
1855	Old Käbelich			I.	8th	implemented according to Glienke , unplayable
1856	Alexandersdorf, Province of Poznan, today Gościnowo	Village church		I.	4th	probably not received
1856	Cölpin	Village church		I / P	9	Long unplayable, 2011 restoration by W. Sauer Orgelbau
1856	Neddemin			I.	4th	not received
1856	Schwarz , Mecklenburg	Village church				not received
1856	Mestlin	Ev. Village church		I / P	7th	Reduction of the organ by Paul Schmidt from 1747 (II / P, 23) from Dobbertin Monastery , not playable since 1945, moved to the Malchow Organ Museum, an exhibit there
1857	Dobbertin	Monastery church		III / P	28	in case by H. Thormann, replaced by Schlag & Söhne in 1893 behind the existing prospectus due to technical defects
1857	Petersdorf	Village church		I.	8th	not received
1858	Schwanbeck	Village church		I / P	8th	Restored in 2002 by Orgelbau Sauer
1858	Dobbertin	School teacher seminar				a small organ for the training of teachers for the monastery's own schools, probably not preserved
1858	Ihlenfeld	Village church				not received
before 1858	Tütz (Poland)
before 1858	Schönlake (Poland)
before 1858	Ratzebur (Poland)
1859	Lindow , Mecklenburg	church		I / p	4th	restored by Schuke
1859	Great Daberkow	church				not received; Church demolished in 1990
1859	Dobbin			I / P	5	not received
1860	Carwitz	Ev. Village church		I / p	6th	preserved, unplayable
1861	Great Varchow	Gross Varchow Church		II / P	11	preserved, unplayable
1863	Triepkendorf	Village church		I.	9	preserved, unplayable

Ernst Sauer also built a number of organs in Prussia, Poland and the Baltic states , including in Riga , Goldingen , Kekkau , Warklan, Suhrs, Baldun and Pilten .

literature

• Hans-Joachim Falkenberg: The organ builder Wilhelm Sauer (1831-1916), life and work. Lauffen 1990.
• Lothar Hörig: The organ builder from Friedland. In: Friedländer Heimatblätter. No. 4, 1993 pp. 36-43.
• Uwe Pape : Ernst Sauer - Schönbeck, Friedland, Frankfurt / Oder. Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-921140-81-1
• Grete Grewolls: Sour, Ernst. In: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. 2011.
• Uwe Pape: Sauer, Carl Adolph Ernst. In: Biographical Lexicon for Mecklenburg. Vol. 6, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-7950-3750-5 , pp. 242-244.
• Uwe Pape: Ernst Sauer. In: Uwe Pape, Wolfram Hackel, Christhard Kirchner (Eds.): Lexicon of North German Organ Builders. Volume 4. Berlin, Brandenburg and the surrounding area including Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Pape Verlag, Berlin 2017. p. 474.

swell

Unprinted sources

• State Main Archive Schwerin
  • LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Provincial Monastery / Monastery Office Dobbertin.
  • LHAS 4.11-1 Mecklenburg-Strelitz State Ministry and State Government.
  • LHAS 5.11-2 Landtag negotiations , Landtag assemblies , Landtag minutes , Landtag committee.
• State Church Archives Schwerin
  • Oberkirchenrat Schwerin, building files

Web links

• Literature about Ernst Sauer (organ builder) in the state bibliography MV
• Ernst Sauer organ database, some organs (Dutch, German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ No birth / baptism: 1797!
2. ↑ OKR, organ acts Schönbeck.
3. ↑ OKR, organ acts Schönbeck.
4. ^ Friedrich Drese: The organ in Dobbertin past, present and future. 2013. (Unpublished)
5. ↑ OKR, organ acts Schönbeck.
6. ↑ LHAS inventory 4.11-1, file 20/344.
7. ^ Letter from the organist in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 1845, No. 46, pp. 190–192; Friedrich Wilke: On the correct appreciation of a letter from the organist C. Gerlach zu Neu-Brandenburg, ... Hamburg / Leipzig 1846; Carl Gerlach: The music director, organ auditor, Ms. Wilke, or Sic transit “gloria” mundi. A contribution to the history of organ auditors as they shouldn't be. Malchin 1847; See also Falkenberg, p. 15. - NB: The quote in italics in the text does not come from NZfM 1845; if it cannot be properly substantiated, consider replacing it with a corresponding provable quotation ...
8. ↑ Public Gazette as a supplement to No. 5. of the Official Journal of the Royal. Government zu Cöslin from January 31, 1844 , p. 37 [ restricted preview in the Google book search], as well as Oeffentlicher Anzeiger (supplement to the Official Gazette No. 6) of the Königl. Government of Danzig February 7, 1844, p. 39 [ limited preview in Google Book Search].
9. ↑ Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian Government in Bromberg of February 21, 1845, p. 157, limited preview in the Google book search.
10. ↑ The newspaper Kurland of September 21, 1853, page Im Inland , and the Rigasche newspaper of July 14, 1852, page Announcements , reported on organ building of the two in Courland (today Latvia). Quoted from Orgel in Landze 1852 (Latvian)
11. ↑ OKR. Grünow, construction file 43.
12. ↑ LHAS 5.11-2 Protocols of the Landtag. November 16, 1854, Dobbertin Monastery No. 7 ad 4 d.
13. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Dobbertin State Monastery. No. 3235 Negotiations and expert opinions on the transformation of the church in Dobbertin 1854–1857.
14. ^ OKR, Dobbertin Monastery Church, No. 32.
15. ↑ LHAS 5.11-2 Protocols of the Landtag. November 16, 1859, Dobbertin Monastery No. 5 ad 1.
16. ↑ LHAS 5.11-2 Protocols of the Landtag. November 15, 1893, Dobbertin Monastery No. 10 ad 8.
17. ↑ Uwe Pape: Sauer, Carl Adolph Ernst. 2011 p. 243.
18. ^ Friedrich Drese: The organ in Dobbertin past, present and future. 2013. (Unpublished)
19. ^ Organ in Wulkenzin , Malchow Organ Museum.
20. ^ Organ in Salow , Malchow Organ Museum.
21. ^ Organ in Schönhausen , Malchow Organ Museum.
22. ↑ no information in Polish organ databases Wirtualne Centrum Organowe and Musicam Sacram 2019
23. ^ Organ in Grünow , Malchow Organ Museum.
24. ↑ no information in Wirtualne Centrum Organowe and Musicam Sacram
25. ^ Organ in Galenbeck , Malchow Organ Museum.
26. ↑ mentioned in Norddeutscher Correspondent , Schwerin February 28, 1858.
27. ^ Organ in Wittenborn , Malchow Organ Museum.
28. ↑ History , general information , disposition , pipe scales , information , console photos , brochure photos , windchest photos , on music.lv (Latvian)
29. ↑ Norddeutscher Correspondent , Schwerin, dated February 28, 1858, mentions the place, Orgel Musicam Sacram, does not know the builder
30. ^ Hannes Ludwig: Organ manual Brandenburg. Volume 1. Uckermark (Westreil) . Freimut und Selbst, Berlin 2005
31. ^ Organ in Mildenitz
32. ^ Organ in Glienke , Malchow Organ Museum.
33. ^ Organ in Cölpin , Malchow Organ Museum.
34. ↑ Bodo von Dewitz: oldest preserved cone store organ. The Ernst Sauer organ from 1856 in the Cölpin church can be heard again after more than 60 years. In: Mecklenburgische and Pommersche Kirchenzeitung. January 8, 2012, No. 1 p. 19.
35. ^ Organ Orgelmuseum Malchow
36. ^ Dobbertin, Protestant monastery church. Malchow Organ Museum, accessed on September 4, 2013 . 
37. ^ Organ in Schwanbeck , Malchow Organ Museum.
38. ↑ North German corespondent Schwerin, February 28 1858th
39. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 1295, 1302. Main register Kloster Amt 1858, 1867.
40. ^ North German Correspondent, Schwerin February 28, 1858.
41. ^ Organ in Lindow , Malchow Organ Museum.
42. ^ Organ in Carwitz , Malchow Organ Museum.
43. ^ Organ in Groß Varchow , Malchow Organ Museum.
44. ↑ organ in Triepkendorf , Organ Museum Malchow.
45. ^ North German Correspondent Schwerin, February 28, 1858.