Georg Sigismund Caspari

Georg Sigismund Caspari (born May 17, 1693 in Sorau / Niederlausitz , † April 7, 1741 in Königsberg i. Pr. , Prussia ) was a German organ builder .

Life

Georg Sigismund Caspari (also George or Siegmund) was born in 1693 as the son of the organ and instrument maker Georg Adam Caspari the Younger (1662–1736) in Sorau (Niederlausitz). He was thus the great-nephew of the most famous organ builder of the Caspari / Casparini family , Eugenio . He probably completed his apprenticeship in his father's workshop; the apprenticeship period of around seven years, which was usual at the time, is assumed to be between 1705 and 1712. Little is known about his subsequent activity, but similarities in the design of the prospectus of his organs with the Italian-influenced prospectuses of his second cousin Adam Horatio Casparini suggest that he must have stayed with him in Wroclaw during his years of traveling . From 1721 he was employed as a journeyman in the workshop of Johann Josua Mosengel in Königsberg . With a request dated May 20, 1727, he proposed him as his successor as the "Royal Prussian Court Organ Builder"; this request was granted with a decree of July 9, 1727.

Caspari married Mosengel's daughter Anna Catharina (1706–1740) in 1729; This marriage resulted in four children, all of whom were minors when their mother died in 1740. Caspari himself died on April 7, 1741 at the age of 47. Since it is recorded that he had made no provision for his death, and since there was no handwritten will or a similar order, it can be assumed that his death was sudden and unexpected. The few jobs that Caspari was able to carry out during the time of his work were not enough to bring the family an adequate income; they suffered from poverty. After Caspari's death, his second cousin Adam Gottlob Casparini , the grandson of Eugenio Casparini, took over the workshop, succeeded him as the “Royal Prussian court organ builder” and obviously also took care of the children who were still underage.

Works

With his appointment as "Royal Prussian Court Organ Builder" on July 9, 1727, it can be assumed that Caspari will be the Mosengels workshop in Königsberg i. Pr. Continued. Until his sudden death in 1741 he did not have the opportunity to build several larger organ works for a short period of only 14 years, only in Königsberg i. Pr. Even in the castle church (already in 1726 as "Probstück" with 27 registers ), the Protestant castle church (completed 1734 with 29 registers) and the Neurossgärter church (1737 with 31 registers) he was able to build two manual organ works, all other instruments are clear smaller.

Compared to the construction of his workshop predecessor Mosengel, he implemented some simplifications in his organs, which, however, did not contribute to the durability of his instruments: By the end of the 1920s, almost all of his organs had been rebuilt at least once or several times. No instrument survived the Second World War.

List of works

In the fifth column, the Roman number indicates the number of manuals , a capital "P" indicates an independent pedal , a lower-case "p" indicates a pedal that is only attached. The Arabic number in the penultimate column indicates the number of sounding registers .

New buildings

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1724-1726	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	German Reformed Castle Church		II / P	27	The organ was the "Probstück" (= masterpiece) of Mosengel's son-in-law Georg Sigismund Caspari, which he built under Mosengel's supervision. In 1936 it gave way to a new building while retaining the historic housing by Karl Kemper with III / P / 50, which was destroyed in 1944/1945.
1730	Löwenhagen	Ev. church		I.	approx. 12	Attribution based on an "inventory of the Ministry of Finance" from 1785. Details of the instrument are not known. In 1881 it was replaced by a new building by August Terletzki. The church survived the Second World War slightly damaged, but was demolished after 1945.
1730	Groß Engelau	Ev. church				Attribution based on an "inventory of the Ministry of Finance" from 1785. Details of the instrument are not known; in 1914 it burned down along with the church.
1732	Belga	Ev. church				Attribution and year of construction based on an "inventory of the Ministry of Finance" from 1785. Details of the instrument are not known, a new organ in the historic case was built in 1927 by the Bruno Goebel workshop. In 1945 the church and its organ were destroyed.
1732	Arnau	Ev. church		I.	11	Installation of a new factory in a historic, but heavily rebuilt housing by Adrian Zickermann. Completion of a pedal work with 3 registers (the organ thus had 14 registers) by the organ builder Scherweit in 1854; the organ builder Nowak converted the work to a pneumatic action around 1900. After 1920 a new organ was built into the historic case. The church has been preserved, the furnishings were lost or destroyed between 1945 and 1950.
1729-1734	Königsberg i Pr.	Castle Church		II / P	30th	1893 Relocation from the original location on the south pore to the north gallery by the organ builder Max Terletzki, with the conversion from mechanical to pneumatic action and replacement of the originally laterally mounted game cabinet with a centrally mounted console. Another renovation took place in 1935, and in 1944/1945 there was severe damage from the bombing raids on the city. In 1969 the remaining ruins were blown up.
1732	Neidenburg	Church of the Conception and St. Adalbert				The contract was signed with Caspari, the organ was built by his former assistant Gerhard Arend cell independently and without Caspari's support.
1734/1735	Schaaken	Ev. church		I / P	16	Attribution and year of construction based on an "inventory of the Ministry of Budget" from 1785. In other sources (e.g. Dehio) the organ is ascribed to Adam Gottlob Casparini , who did not come to Königsberg until after Caspari's death in 1741 and therefore did not build it it is a possibility. In 1895 Eduard Wittek built an organ with II / P / 19 and pneumatic action behind the nine-part Caspari prospectus. The church - and thus probably also the organ - survived the Second World War unscathed, but is now only preserved as a ruin.
1734/1737	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Neurossgärter Church		II / P	31	New building using the historical case and 21 registers by David Trampp from 1673/1674. Repairs were carried out in 1800 and 1823 by the organ builder Jacob Preuß , a rebuilding in 1904 by Bruno Goebel . In 1934 Wilhelm Sauer built a new instrument with IV / P / 67 into the old case. In 1945 the instrument fell victim to destruction.
around 1735	Hasenpoth	Ev. church		I.	8th	The assignment is based on a memo in Aizpute in Courland, in which the construction of an organ positive by Georg Sigismund Caspari and Gerhard Arend cell for the period "around 1735" is proven.
1737	Döbern (Prussian Holland district)	Ev. church		I.		The organ is attributed to Adam Gottlob Casparini in various publications (e.g. Dehio) , who was only active in Königsberg and the surrounding area from 1741. Therefore only Georg Sigismund Caspari comes into question as builder. In 1912 Eduard Wittek built an organ with pneumatic action behind the five-part Caspari prospectus. The prospectus has been preserved in the church - which is now a Catholic church - in Dobry, Poland.
1736/1739	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	French Reformed Church		I / P	15th	In 1931 the organ was considered to be the only baroque organ still preserved and playable in Königsberg. It was replaced in 1932 by a new organ from the Furtwängler & Hammer workshop . This organ was destroyed with the church in 1945.
1739/1741	Marggrabova	Ev. church		I / P	15th	The contract dated July 6, 1739, signed by Caspari himself, has been preserved, along with extensive archive material. After the financial situation had been clarified, construction could only begin in October 1739. Caspari died on April 4, 1741, while his journeymen Johann Heinrich Westhoff and Daniel Robbert were busy building the organ in the church. The organ was completed by Westhoff, but since no suitable organist was available for acceptance, it was put into operation without one. Caspari's successor, Adam Gottlob Casparini, examined the organ in 1742 and discovered a number of deficiencies, which Westhoff, who has since worked in his own workshop, improved. The organ and church were destroyed in a city fire in 1776.

Repairs, overhauls, modifications

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1733/1735	Kaymen	Ev. church				Repair, further information not known. Only ruins remain of the church.
1734	Groß Peisten ( Preussisch Eylau district )	Ev. church		I / P	14th	Reconstruction of the organ built for Bartenstein in 1614 , which Johann Josua Mosengel had already added a pedal in 1700. Caspari put a parapet prospect as a dummy in front of the factory. Another renovation took place after 1850, before the church and organ were destroyed in 1945.
1734	Grunau	Ev. church				repair
1735	Neidenburg	Evangelical town church				restoration
1735	Bladiau	church				Repair of an organ positive
1738/1739	Bladiau	church				Repair of an organ built in 1720
1739	Laptau	church				Repair of an old organ positive

literature

• Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca , Hermann Fischer : History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-921140-80-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca , Hermann Fischer : History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 243.
2. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 244.
3. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 46 f.
4. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 245.
5. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 245.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 251 and 257.
7. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 251 and 259.
8. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 251 and 261.
9. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 251 and 272.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments , Volume 7, German Order Region Prussia. Revised by Ernst Gall. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin.
11. ↑ At Renkewitz / Janca / Fischer, the measure is added to the new buildings, although large parts of the old plant were taken over. One can speak of a technical new building, in addition to the old pipe material, the organ frame and essential parts of the case have been preserved (Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of Organ Building Art in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini, Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 277-279).
12. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 291.
13. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 252 and 274.
14. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 252 and 281.
15. ↑ Werner Renkewitz, Jan Janca, Hermann Fischer: History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia. Volume II, 1: Mosengel, Caspari, Casparini. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 252 and 283–291.