Johann Josua Mosengel

Organ in Heiligelinde

Typical detail for Mosengel: movable angels on the organ in Święta Lipka

Johann Josua Mosengel (born September 16, 1663 in Eisenach ; † January 18, 1731 in Königsberg i. Pr. , Prussia ) was a German organ builder .

Life

Johann Josua Mosengel was born in Eisenach in 1663 as the second son of pastor Johann Joachim Mosengel (* around 1630; † not known). He had at least one older brother Johann Elias (* around 1660; † before 1738), who was also an organ builder. Johann Josua learned the trade of organ building from Johann Tobias Gottfried Trost and Martin Vater. Mosengel stayed in Königsberg i. As early as 1693/1694, presumably at the instigation of the city fathers . Pr. On. During these years he made an organ for the church in Medenau . A new building in Bissendorf in 1695 led him back to the Hanover area . In 1695 he became "Elector of Hanover Organ Builder". In 1696/1697 he returned to Königsberg i. Pr. And began there besides some small work with the construction of the three manual organ for the Evangelical church of Löbenicht , which was his first important work. With a decree of June 23, 1698 he was appointed "Elector of Brandenburg-Prussian Court Organ Builder". After Prussia was elevated to kingdom in 1701, the decree was reissued with the same text, but now with the title "Royal Prussian Court Organ Builder".

In 1699 in Königsberg he married Dorothea Schau , daughter of the court relative Heinrich Schau , with whom he had three sons and three daughters.

Mosengel's journeyman George Barsenick speaks in a request that dates from around 1715 of his master's “frequent indisposition”, so that it is assumed that Mosengel was repeatedly plagued by illnesses from around the age of 50. In 1721 he hired Georg Sigismund Caspari (1693–1741) as a journeyman, whom he himself proposed on May 20, 1727 as his successor as “Royal Prussian court organ builder”. Caspari married Mosengel's daughter Anna Catharina (1706–1740) in 1729. Mosengel died on January 18, 1731 at the age of 67. Caspari continued his workshop; none of Mosengel's sons entered the organ building trade.

Works

During his lifetime, Mosengel's workshop resulted in around 40 new buildings and he undertook around 20 conversions.

For the cathedral organ in Königsberg , Mosengel partly used pipes from the predecessor organ from the 16th century by Zickermann. After completion, this organ was one of the largest of its time, with 62 stops on three manuals and pedal.

Mosengel's typical features included moving angels on the prospectus and the Prussian eagle with moving wings.

Only a few of his works survived the Second World War, most were destroyed or looted. In the former East Prussia only a few brochures have survived, which are marked accordingly in the following list of works.

List of works (selection)

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

The list of new buildings follows the overview in the history of organ building in East and West Prussia .

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1694	Medenau	Ev. church		I / P	15th	Replaced in 1886 by a new building by Max Terletzki.
1694	Petersdorf	Ev. church		I.	6th	Canceled in 1904
1695	Bissendorf (Wedemark)	St. Michaelis Church (Bissendorf)		I / P	9	not received
1695/1697	Kumehn	Ev. church		I / P	16	Replaced in 1881/1884 by a new building by Max Terletzki, while preserving the Mosengel prospectus. Not received today.
1697	Pobethen	Ev. church		II / P	22nd	originally I built with 10 registers, added Rückpositiv in 1726, rebuilt in 1868 and added a pedal mechanism Destroyed in 1944.
1698	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Löbenichtsche Church		III / P	48	Burned down together with the church in 1764.
1698/1699	Grunau	Ev. church		I.	10	A pedal mechanism was added in 1866. Destroyed in 1944/1945.
1699	Allenburg	Ev. Parish church		II	22nd	Destroyed in combat in 1914.
1699 or 1702	Niebudszen	Ev. church				Replaced in 1866 by a new building by an unknown organ builder.
1700	Kiss	Ev. Village church		I.		The organ - it was probably a positive - is mentioned in an "inventory list of the budget ministry" from 1785. Since the church was rebuilt in 1743, the organ was obviously taken over from the old church into the new one. The church is no longer preserved, when the organ was lost cannot be determined.
1700	Nemmersdorf	Ev. church		I.		The organ - it was probably a positive - is mentioned in an "inventory list of the budget ministry" from 1785. It is said to have been acquired by the church in Nemmersdorf in 1784. The instrument has not been preserved.
1701	Labiau	Labiau town church				Canceled in 1870
1701	Landsberg (East Prussia)	City Church		II / P	26th	In 1895 or 1913 a new building was built behind the historic prospectus. The organ survived World War II, but was plundered over the years, so that the empty Mosengel Prospect was demolished in 1974.
1701	Old Lappienen	Ev. church		I.	9	A pedal unit with three registers was added in 1872. Probably sunk in 1944/1945.
around 1702	Brandenburg (Fresh Lagoon)	Ev. church		I / P	16	1912 New building in the Mosengel housing by the Goebel workshop, Königsberg i. Pr., With II / P / 14 and pneumatic action . The organ was destroyed with the church in 1944/1945.
1704 or around 1700	Domnau	Ev. church		I.	12	In 1880 a pedal unit with 3 registers was added. Replaced in 1934 by a new building by Karl Kemper with II / P / 13, whereby the case and registers that can still be used were reused. Probably plundered in 1944/1945, not preserved.
1705	Passenheim	Ev. church		I.	12	The case has been preserved to this day! 1902 New building in the Mosengel housing by the Carl Novak workshop, Königsberg i. Pr., With II / P / 20 and pneumatic action . 1998 New building by the Zych workshop, Wołomin, with II / P / 23 behind the historical prospectus.
1706	Poerschken	Ev. church		I.	10	In 1732, after the church was rebuilt, Mosengel's successor Caspari moved it to the west gallery. In 1850 a pedal mechanism with 3 registers was added, restored in 1934 by Karl Kemper . Church and organ burned down in 1945.
1706	Kaymen	Ev. church		I.		Mosengel used a prospectus and perhaps also a pipe work by Adrian Zickermann the Younger. Around 1726 a Rückpositiv was added. 1866 Extension by Wilhelm Sauer, Frankfurt (Oder), to II / P / 27. Organ and church are destroyed.
1707	Königsberg i Pr.	Sackheimer Church		I / P	14th	Destroyed on November 11, 1764 in the town fire along with the church.
before 1711	Schmoditten	Ev. church				Replaced in 1768 by a new organ with 1/8 by Johann Preuss .
before 1711	Langheim	Ev. church				No further information is known about the organ, it is only mentioned in a letter from Mosengel's journeyman George Barsenick. Around 1766 a new building took place, which Renkewitz attributed to Johann Preuss . This organ has not survived either, and other new buildings followed.
1711	Almenhausen	Ev. church		I / P	14th	Originally built for the church in Uderwangen , transferred to Almenhausen around 1865. Probably set in 1944
1711	Memel	German town church St. Johannis				The number of stops and further details of the organ are not known. It was destroyed in the great fire of 1854.
1712	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Orphanage				No further information is known about the organ, it is only mentioned in a letter from Mosengel's journeyman George Barsenick. It has not been preserved.
1714	Stockheim	Ev. church		I.	7th	Made it through World War II but was demolished with the church in 1970.
1715	Eisenberg (district of Heiligenbeil)	Ev. church		I.	9	Contract signed in 1714, completed in 1715. The organ was demolished in 1897 as part of a church renovation.
1716	Neuhausen	Ev. church				The organ was replaced in 1902 by a new one by Carl Novak.
1717	Wosseden	Ev. church		I.	5	It was a positive chest that was used as a processional organ. It is the only signed organ work from Mosengel's workshop, but the signature reads “Gabriel J. Mose [nge] l me fecit 1717”. Gabriel J. was probably Johann Josua's nephew and obviously learned the trade of organ building in his workshop. According to Renkewitz, this positive could have been his “journeyman piece”, but this cannot be definitively proven. The organ was built in 1941 by the Goebel workshop, Königsberg i. Pr., Restored and kept in the apartment of the organ builder Goebel. There the instrument was destroyed in 1944.
1718	Finckenstein	Ev. Parish church		I.	8th	Mosengel made two identical housings for this instrument, each standing on a gallery to the right and left of the high pulpit altar. The left case contained the organ, the right a bookcase. Today both cases are empty except for the prospectus pipes. The Berlin organ builder Albert Lang built a new organ in the Mosengel case as early as 1887, but this was removed from the case after 1945 and rebuilt on the opposite gallery (without case?).
1718-1721	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Koenigsberg Cathedral		III / P	62	Destroyed in 1944. After the reconstruction of the cathedral, an organ from Alexander Schuke Orgelbau GmbH with IV / P / 90 was built in 2007/2008 , for which a housing based on the Mosengel prospect was constructed.
1719-1721	Holy linden tree	Pilgrimage church		III / P	40	The case with a large number of moving figures has been preserved to this day. The organ itself was rebuilt in 1905 by the Goebel workshop in Königsberg i. Pr., Replaced with II / P / 36. Individual Mosengel pipes are only preserved in three registers (principal 16 ′ and octave 8 ′ in the pedal and Großgedackt 16 ′ in the main work)
1722	Chewing	Ev. church		I.	11	The organ was replaced in 1843/1844 by a new instrument from Johann Scherweit with II / P / 24, which however reused the Mosengel case. Already in 1904 the church burned down together with the organ.
1724	Friedland	Ev. St. George Church		II / P	29	Repaired or repaired in 1766, 1791, 1813, 1852, 1873 and approx. 1890, the organ was replaced in 1913 by a new instrument from Wilhelm Sauer, Frankfurt (Oder) with II / P / 26. The church survived both world wars, but the interior of the church - and thus obviously the organ - was removed from the church in 1948.
1726	Braunsberg	Catholic parish church of St. Catherine		II / P	29	The organ was replaced in 1909 by a new work by the Bruno Goebel workshop , Königsberg i. Pr., Which accommodated 42 registers in the Mosengel case. In 1945 the church and organ were destroyed.
1726	Goldap	Ev. Old church		I.	10	In 1785 the organ was sold in a damaged condition to a “Polish church 5 miles from Goldap”.
1726	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	German Reformed Castle Church		II / P	27	The organ is the "Probstück" (= masterpiece) of Mosengel's son-in-law Georg Sigismund Caspari, which he built under Mosengel's supervision. In 1936 the organ gave way to a new building while retaining the historic case by Karl Kemper with III / P / 50, which was destroyed in 1944/1945.

Repairs, overhauls, modifications

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1693	Arnau	Ev. church				Repair of the organ.
1694 or 1695	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Ev. Dom				Repair or overhaul of the 1587 organ.
1694	Mühlhausen (Prussian Eylau district)	Ev. Village church				Repair or modification.
1695	Wolfenbüttel	Main Church BMV				Repair of the organ built by Gottfried Fritzsche between 1620 and 1624 together with his brother Johann Elias.
1696	Hanover	Castle Church				Repair or overhaul.
1700	Bartenstein	City Church				Repair or overhaul of the organ by Joachim Thiele from 1653
1701	Labiau	Labiau town church				Repairs canceled together with his journeyman George Barsenick, 1870
1702	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Castle Church				modification
1702	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Castle Church				modification
1707	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Neurossgärter Church				modification
1708	Angerburg	Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul				Repair or restoration of an organ by Joachim Thiele, the prospectus and work are largely preserved.
1710	Holy ax	Ev. church				Repair of the organ by Johann Kaul from Heiligenbeil from the 16th century, not preserved, church 1944/1945 destroyed down to the foundation walls.
1711 or 1720	Koenigsberg	Haberberger Trinitatis Church		II / P	32	Reconstruction and extension of an organ by David Trampp from 1689 or 1674. The organ and church burned down in 1747.
1714	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Ev. Dom				Major repairs to the organ from 1587 together with his journeyman George Barsenick.
1715	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Tragheimer Church				Repair.
1721	Rastenburg	Ev. church				Major repairs to the organ from 1591/1595.
1722	Koenigsberg i. Pr.	Löbenichtsche Church		III / P	48	Extension of the organ built by Mosengel in 1698. Burned down together with the church in 1764.
1728	Old Lappienen	Ev. church				repair
1726/1729	Fischhausen	Ev. church				Repair of the organ by Zickermann from 1619.
1729	Holy ax	Ev. church				Repair of the organ by Johann Kaul from Heiligenbeil from the 16th century for 195 florins, not preserved, church 1944/1945 destroyed down to the foundation walls.

literature

• Jan Janca:  Mosengel, Johann Josua. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 172 f. ( Digitized version ).
• 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, pp. 15, 17 and 23: The contract for the construction of the organ in Medenau contained the passage that Mosengel “came from Eisenach”. Nothing is known about his mother.
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, pp. 109–111.
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. 32.
4. ↑ Court member, court assessor, lay judge, see court relatives in the German Legal Dictionary (DRW) , seen on June 25, 2017.
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. 244.
6. ↑ 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. 56.
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, list of works on pp. 104–108, individual presentations on pages 109–241.
8. ^ After Renkewitz, Janca, Fischer.
9. ↑ Church of Duke Kirch (Niebudzen) , seen on March 5, the 2017th
10. ↑ ^{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. 106 and 239.
11. ↑ 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. 138–141.
12. ↑ Organ of the church in Pasym ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , as seen on March 12, 2017. 
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. 16–17 and 187–191.
14. ↑ Documentation on the renovation work on the Goebel organ carried out by Westfälischer Orgelbau S. Sauer, 2009.
15. ↑ Today cath. Marienkirche.
16. ↑ 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. 237.
17. ↑ Provinzial-Blätter, Volume 7, p. 441 , viewed on March 26, 2017.
18. ↑ ^{a b c} 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. 105.
19. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} 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, p. 240.
20. ↑ After 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, p. 240, the works should refer to the “Castle Church”. However, this should be interpreted as an error, as the information on p. 106 is more precise and clear. There was and is no “castle church” in Wolfenbüttel, but at most a castle chapel which was located in the residential tower.
21. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} 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, p. 106.
22. ^ Photo by 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, p. 241.
23. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} 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, p. 107.
24. ↑ 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. 192.
25. ↑ ^{a b c d e} 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. 108.
26. ↑ 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. 214.