Scherer (organ builder)

Scherer is the surname of a German family of organ builders from the 16th and early 17th centuries. The family was based in Hamburg . She was one of the most important organ builders of her time and led north German organ building to flourish. Scherer organ refers to an organ that was built by one of these organ builders.

The following representatives come from three generations:

• Jacob (Jakob) Scherer († 1574 in Hamburg), father of:
• Hans Scherer the Elder (around 1535 in Hamburg; † 1611 in Hamburg), father of:
• Hans Scherer the Younger (* between 1570 and 1580 in Hamburg; † 1631), brother of:
• Fritz Scherer

Jacob Scherer

Jacob Scherer took over the organ workshop from Jakob Iversand. In 1569 he handed over his workshop to his son-in-law Dirk Hoyer, who had been helping him from around 1556. Hoyer had married a daughter of Jacob Scherer in 1567. Scherer appears to have been wealthy and acquired some land.

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 indicates the number of sounding registers . The last column provides information on the state of preservation or special features. Italics indicate that the organ has not been preserved or only the historical case has been preserved.

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1546	Wilsnack	Wunderblutkirche				New building, not preserved
1549 / 1557-1558	Lübeck	Marienkirche				Extension of the dance of death organ by a Rückpositiv; Destroyed in 1942 → Dance of the Dead organ
1543-1551	Hamburg	St. Jacobi		II / P	about 40	Repairs → Organ of the main church Sankt Jacobi (Hamburg)
1538-1552	Luneburg	Michaeliskirche		III / P	32	Repairs; 1551 extension by a Rückpositiv; not received
1551-1552	Neuruppin	St. Mary				New building, not preserved
1553-1554 / 1557	Brandenburg on the Havel	St. Gotthardt (?)				New building; not received
1555-1558	Mölln	St. Nicolai		II / P	14th	Extension of the 15th century organ by 7 manual stops and 6 pedal stops; some registers preserved → Scherer-Bünting organ from St. Nicolai (Mölln)
between 1555 and 1569	Kappeln	St. Nikolai				Pipework by J. Scherer and Hoyer integrated into the new organ from 1793; 8 registers preserved in whole or in part, which were not integrated in the new building by Reinalt Johannes Klein (2013; II / P / 40)
1557-1560	Szczecin	Marienkirche				New building; not received
1560-1561	Lübeck	Marienkirche		III / P	32	Extension of the large organ by a breastwork; Destroyed in 1942 → main organ
1551-1563	Ratzeburg	Ratzeburg Cathedral		I.	11	New building; not received
1564-1566	Szczecin	Jakobskirche				New building; not received
1568	Magdeburg	Saint Jakobi Church				New building, together with Hans Bockelmann; not received

Hans Scherer the Elder

Hans Scherer the Elder was the most famous representative of the organ building family. He was a student of the Brabant organ builder Hendrik Niehoff and conveyed his achievements to German organ building. From the early 1550s he is proven to be his father's assistant (repairs in Hamburg / Jacobi and Lüneburg / Michaelis). In 1571 he opened his own organ workshop in Bernau near Berlin . He returned to Hamburg in 1587 at the latest. Important students of Scherer were Johann Lange , teacher of Gottfried Fritzsche , and Antonius Wilde , who both set up their own workshops. One of Scherer's employees was the organ builder Hans Bockelmann († 1602), who had also worked for Jacob Scherer. From 1603 onwards, Scherer seems to have increasingly left the work to his sons Hans and Fritz.

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1572-1573	Bernau near Berlin	St. Mary's Church		II / P	29	New building; demolished in 1864 after several renovations; 14 angel figures (including 5 from the building period) from the prospectus and a few chiseled pipes have been preserved
1580	Stendal	St. Mary		II / P	29	New Rückpositiv; Case and 270 pipes from eleven registers from Scherer preserved; today III / P / 38
1585	Burgdorf	St. Pancras		III / P	at 30	originally built for Hildesheim , St. Georgen, sold to Burgdorf in 1812; Prospectus received and details of old lengths that were taken into account during the restoration
1587-1590	Stade	St. Nicolai				New building; later changed significantly; Transferred to Himmelpforten in 1835 ; preserved some registers; Rückpositiv case preserved in Kirchlinteln
1588-1592	Hamburg	St. Jacobi		III / P	53	Extension by an upper work together with Hans Bockelmann; some registers preserved → organ of the main church Sankt Jacobi (Hamburg)
1587/1604	Hamburg	St. Catherine's		III / P		Extension conversion; later rebuilt several times, some registers preserved
before 1593	Husum	Marienkirche				Changes to the organ by Johann Gose (1573–1577); not received
1593	Hamburg-Bergedorf	Church of St. Petri and Pauli				New building; not received
around 1594	Luneburg	Nicolaikirche				New building by Scherer or Hans Bockelmann; not received
1596-1598	Meldorf	St. John's Church		II / P	30th	New construction or renovation; not received
1600-1601	Herford	Herford Cathedral		II / P	9	Reconstruction of an older organ; not received
1600	Brake	Brake Castle		II / P	20th	New building
1602	Marne (Holstein)			I / P		New building by Hans Bockelmann. Prospectus received (return positive).
1605-1607	Hamburg	St. Gertrude's Chapel				Collaboration on the new building; not received
1608	Rotenburg (Wümme)	Castle chapel				New building; not received

Hans Scherer the Younger

Hans Scherer the Younger continued the successful tradition of his father. He acquired Hamburg citizenship on May 23, 1606 and married Agneta Steer in the same year. In 1607 the daughter Magdalena was born. After the death of his first wife, Scherer married Elisabeth Timme on May 5, 1614. From this marriage Elizabeth, Hieronymus, another Elizabeth and Sarah were born. Scherer further developed the concept of independent pedal towers, which led to the Hamburg prospectus . Gottfried Fritzsche was his successor and an important link to the organ builder Arp Schnitger .

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1603-1604	Hamburg	St. Petri		III / P	48	Repair, together with his father and brother; not received
1606-1607	Hamburg	St. Jacobi		III / P	53	Overhaul of the organ, together with his brother Fritz → Organ of the main church Sankt Jacobi (Hamburg)
1610-1611	Immenhausen	St. George		II / P		New construction or renovation; Burned in 1631
1610-1615	kassel	Castle Church		II / P	20th	New building; canceled in the 18th century
1610-1612	kassel	Martinskirche		III / P	33	New building; after various modifications, replaced by a new organ by Friedrich Ladegast in 1896 ; Scherer prospectus destroyed in 1943
1610-1612	kassel	Brethren Church		II / P	25th	New building; Destroyed in 1943
1619-1620	Freiburg / Elbe	St. Wulphardi		II / P		Repair of the organ of an unknown organ builder; 6 registers preserved
1622	Hamburg-Curslack	St. Johannis		I / P		New building; 5 registers preserved and integrated in the new building by Rudolf von Beckerath organ building (I / P / 7, 1971)
1620-1623	Lübeck	Petrikirche		III / P	45	Safety measures, construction of 9 bellows (20 × 4 feet), repairs to the pipe work of the organ by Gose / Borchert (1586–1591); Replaced by Walcker organ in 1888
1623-1624	Tangermünde	St. Stephen's Church		III / P	32	New building together with Fritz Scherer; about half preserved → organ from St. Stephan (Tangermünde)
1624-1625	Lübeck	Aegidienkirche		III / P	36	New building; Housing preserved → Organ of the Aegidienkirche (Lübeck)
1624-1625	Lübeck	Lübeck Cathedral				Repair; not received
1625	Minden	Marienkirche				New building; not received
1625-1626	Minden	Minden Cathedral		II / P	25th	New building; Destroyed in 1945
1627-1628	Hamburg	St. Georg (Church of St. Georg Hospital)		II / P	27	Repair; some registers in the new building taken over by Arp Schnitger (1708); 1747 to Lenzen (Elbe) / St. Katharinen (photo) implemented, rebuilt there several times; 5 registers received
1628-1629	Stade	St. Cosmae et Damiani				Repairs; Burned in 1659 → organ of St. Cosmae et Damiani (Stade)
1630	Oberndorf					Repairs; not received
1631	Itzehoe	St. Laurentii				major repairs to the organ by Matthias Mahn (1562) after war damage; not received

Fritz Scherer

Fritz Scherer worked on several organs together with his brother.

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1603-1604	Hamburg	St. Petri		III / P	48	Repair, together with his father and brother; not received
1612-1613	Lemgo	St. Mary		II / P	20th	From Fritz Scherer in the case of the predecessor organ by Gebr. Slegel ; later rebuilt several times; Remains of Scherer preserved; 2009/2010 reconstruction by Rowan West → organs from St. Marien (Lemgo)

literature

• Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel (Eds.): The Organ. To Encyclopedia . Routledge, New York, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-94174-1 , pp. 493–494 ( partly online ).
• Gustav Fock : Arp Schnitger and his school. A contribution to the history of organ building in the North and Baltic Sea coast areas . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1974, ISBN 3-7618-0261-7 .
• Gustav Fock: Scherer (family) . In: Music in the past and present . 1st edition. tape 11 . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1963, p. 1674–1676 (CD-ROM version, Directmedia, Berlin 2001 (digital library, volume 60)).
• Gustav Fock: Hamburg's share in organ building in the Low German cultural area . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History . No. 38 , 1939, pp. 289-373 (307-342) ( uni-hamburg.de - see the English, revised version, Hamburg's Role , 1995).
• Gisela Jaacks: Scherer, Hans d. Ä. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 2 . Christians, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1366-4 , pp. 370-370 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)
• H. Kellinghusen: The Hamburg organ builder Hans Scherer, father and son . In: Communications from the Association for Hamburg History . tape 11 , no. 31 , 1912, pp. 72 ff .
• Christoph Lehmann (Ed.): 375 years of the Scherer organ Tangermünde. The largest renaissance organ in the world. 2nd Edition. Freimut & Selbst, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8336-5 , limited preview in the Google book search
• Ibo Ortgies : The practice of organ tuning in northern Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries and its relationship to contemporary music practice . Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg 2004 ( gbv.de [PDF; 5.4 MB ] rev. 2007).
• Paul Rubardt: Some news about the Scherer family of organ builders . In: Music and Church . tape 2 , 1930, p. 111-126 .
• Eckhard Trinkaus: On the activity of the organ builder Scherer in Hesse . In: Ars Organi . tape 47 , 1999, p. 215-217 .
• Maarten A. Vente: The Brabant Organ. On the history of organ art in Belgium and Holland in the Gothic and Renaissance ages . HJ Paris, Amsterdam 1963.

Web links

• Organ in Tangermünde
• Organs in St. Marien (Lemgo)
• Restoration project Stendal, St. Marien
• Gerhard Aumüller: On the history of the Marburg palace organ (PDF; 248 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gisela Jaacks: Scherer, Hans d. Ä. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 2 . Christians, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1366-4 , pp. 370-370 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)
2. ↑ See the two articles on the reconstruction of the Scherer prospectus and on the history of the organ in: Thomas Drachenberg (Hrsg.): Die Stadt in der Kirche. The Marienkirche in Bernau and its equipment (= workbooks of the Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeological State Museum , vol. 40). Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86732-260-7 , pp. 196–243.
3. ^ Organ in Lenzen , accessed on January 7, 2013.