Friedrich Haas (organ builder)

Friedrich Haas (1811-1886)

Friedrich Haas (born February 10, 1811 in Badisch-Laufenburg , † July 18, 1886 in Lucerne ) was a German - Swiss organ builder . He is considered to be the most important organ builder in Switzerland in the middle of the 19th century.

Life

Friedrich Haas was born as the fifth of sixteen children. His parents were the rope master and mayor of Laufenburg Franz Josef Haas (1773–1841) and Theresia Probst (1786–1867). His marriage on February 22, 1838 with the Basel bourgeois daughter Rosina Gessler, who was 14 years older, remained childless. At the age of 75 he died of a prolonged stomach ailment. He was buried in the new cemetery in Lucerne-Friedental.

After training with the Baden organ builders Blasius, Matthäus and Joseph Schaxel from 1825 to 1829, he worked for Eberhard Friedrich Walcker from 1830 to 1835 and then went into business for himself. From 1840 he worked exclusively in Switzerland. In 1844 he met Aristide Cavaillé-Coll , with whom he had a long friendship. Haas' collaboration with the organ building theorist Johann Gottlob Töpfer , whose textbook on organ building art (1855) he worked on, was also significant .

In the tradition of the old organ builders, Haas moved from place to place according to his orders, he only settled down when the organ for the court church in Lucerne was being built. There he also became a Swiss citizen in 1862.

In 1868, Haas' long-time employee Friedrich Goll took over his workshop. Haas himself worked as an organ expert for several years. From an artistic and technical point of view, he shaped the change from the southern German baroque style to the romantic building of organs in Switzerland.

Works

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1837	Grenzach					New building
1840	Zurich	Neumunster				New building
1840/1841	Rheinau ZH	Monastery church				Reconstruction of the main organ
1843	Winterthur	City Church				New building
1845	Neuchâtel / Neuchâtel	Temple du Bas				modification
1846	Basadingen					New building
1846	Tauffelen					New building
1847	Herdern					New building
1847	Zofingen	City Church				New building
1849	Bern	Muenster				modification
1850	Muri	Parish church				New building
1851	Lenzburg	City Church				modification
1852	Freiburg	cathedral				modification
1852	Muri	Monastery church				Reconstruction of the main organ
1854	Leuggern					New building
1857	Basel	Muenster				New building
1862	Lucerne	Court Church				New building, large parts of today's organ preserved
1864	Lucerne	Matthew Church				New building
1864/1865	Thalwil	reformed Church		II / P	16	New building, the only largely original work. 1914–1988 in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche Bülach

literature

• Ernst Schiess: Organ builder Friedrich H. In: The Organist, 1933, No. 5, 57–62.
• Urs Fischer: The organ builder Friedrich Haas 1811–1886. (= Monographs Monument Preservation 4), Zurich 2002.
• Urs Fischer: Friedrich Haas. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Instrument portrait on the Orgelbau Kuhn AG website , accessed on September 5, 2012.
2. ↑ The large organ on the website of the Muri monastery church, accessed on December 28, 2015.
3. ↑ Portrait on the website of the Church Information Service of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich, accessed on September 5, 2012.
4. ↑ Friedrich Jakob: Review in: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History , 62 (2005), Issue 1, p. 56f.

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Haas (organ builder)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files