Johann Preuss (organ builder)

Prussian organ in Insterburg

Johann Preuss (* 1722 ; † 1798 ) was a German organ builder .

Life

He completed his first training with his father before he worked under the organ builder Adam Gottlob Casparini (1715–1788). He received his apprenticeship from him on January 24th, 1742. As a journeyman he was involved with Casparini in the rebuilding of the organ in the Königsberg Cathedral . Later active as a Königsberg master in East Prussia and Lithuania , he became a privileged organ builder with a settlement permit from 1752 to a competitor of his former master and worked on around 70 organs, including over 30 new organs. The orders for the Königsberg cathedral organ were also given to him in the later years. His son Jacob Preuss continued his work until about 1830, u. a. probably with his father in Königsberg-Löbenicht in 1782, since the different sources do not clearly distinguish between the two. Jacob underwent a detailed examination in 1795 in order to succeed his master Christoph Wilhelm Braveleits (1752–1795) as court organ builder.

List of works (selection)

33 new organs, 33 repairs, 2 conversions and 5 attributed and 2 unsafe new constructions are known by Johann Preuss. He built the largest instruments for the Löbenicht Church in Königsberg (II / P, 40) and the Luther Church in Insterburg (II / P, 33). As far as we know today, all other instruments were probably positive without a pedal , and for most of them the original dispositions are no longer known.

Only the organ from Werden, today in Kretinga , Lithuania, has survived in an expanded form, as well as the brochures in Srokowo (Drengfurt) and Lidzbark (Heilsberg) in the castle chapel, each in bold.

New organs

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1760	Heilsberg (Lidzbark)	Castle chapel				Prospectus received
1762-1766	Insterburg	Lutherkirche (City Church)		II / P	33	Modifications by W. Sauer , destroyed after 1945
1767	Heiligenwalde	Protestant church				destroyed
1768	Schmoditten (Ryabinovka)	Protestant church		I.	9	destroyed after 1945
1769	Drengfurth (Srokowo)	Protestant church		I.	13	Brochure received, 1882 installation of a pedal by Max Terletzki , 1897 new construction by W. Sauer (II / P, 18)
1773/75	Lion's Arch (Lwowiec)	church				destroyed
1782	Koenigsberg - Löbenicht	Löbenichtsche Church		II / P	40	1935 New building by Kemper , destroyed in 1945
1785	Kretinga	Lutheran Church		I.	8th	originally in Werden, 1827 to Deutsch Krettingen, 1898 to Kretinga, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Century extension to II / P, 12, received
1793	Tilsit (Sovetsk)	reformed Church				destroyed after 1945
1796	Holy ax (Mamonowo)	City Church				destroyed after 1945

literature

• Werner Renkewitz , Jan Janca , Hermann Fischer : History of the art of organ building in East and West Prussia from 1333 to 1944. Volume II, 2. From Johann Preuss to E. Kemper & Sohn, Lübeck / Bartenstein. Siebenquart, Cologne 2015. pp. 23–90.
• Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel: The Organ. To Encyclopedia. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York / London 2006, ISBN 0-415-941-74-1 , pp. 158 , 561.

Web links

• Johann Preuss vargonai (Lithuanian)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Herbert Heyde: Musical instrument making in Prussia. Verlag Hans Schneider, 1994, ISBN 3-7952-0720-7 , p. 80.
2. ↑ August Rudolph Gebser: History of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the diocese of Samland. Hartungsche Hofdruckerei, Königsberg 1835, p. 338.
3. ↑ cf. Adolf Boetticher : Architectural and art monuments of the province of East Prussia. Book V, Lithuania. Printed by Emil Rautenberg, Königsberg 1835 , p. 48.
4. ↑ cf. Löbenichtsche Kirche organs from Königsberg, at link on the sidebar
5. ↑ Organ in Kretinga vargonai.com (Lithuanian)
6. ↑ cf. also Martin Rost : organ baroque in Vilnius. P. 82. (= Society of Organ Friends: "Ars organi" Journal for Organ Science, No. 55, Merseburger Verlag, Berlin 2007)