Johann Stephan Schmaltz

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Johann Stephan Schmaltz (born September 23, 1715 in Wandersleben , † April 28, 1784 in Arnstadt ) was an organ builder in Thuringia and a student of Johann Christoph Thielemann .

Johann Stephan Schmaltz (silhouette)

Life

Schmaltz was born in Wandersleben as the son of the line weaver Nicol Schmaltz and his wife Ursula. After his apprenticeship with Thielemann, he built the organ for the church in Hochdorf as early as 1740 . Organs for Blankenhain followed in 1741 and 1742 for Krakendorf . After the order received in 1743 to rebuild the organ in the church in Sülzenbrücken , he built a new organ with nine registers in the St. Nicholas Church in Kornhochheim , then a branch of Sülzenbrücken, in 1744/45 . As far as we know today, this organ is the only largely preserved Schmaltz organ. He signed his orders and contracts with the addition “Organ maker from Wandersleben” .

Schmaltz is mentioned in writings from the tower knob of the St. Petri Church in Wandersleben from 1744 when listing the Personal Nobiles Honoratiores and Frey people . In connection with work on the Schröter organ in the St. Petri Church, Schmaltz is mentioned in the community accounts. In 1760 he gave the organ an additional register and a violin bass, which is referred to in an entry from 1764. Two years later, the purchase of a glockenspiel is mentioned in the municipal bill , which says: 3 Groschen dem Org. [Anisten] before the Way to Arnstadt to ask the organ maker Schmaltzen about a carillon ... In 1770 the carillon was installed by Schmaltz. In 1779 Schmaltz acknowledged with the remark two golds. Voting and waiting money from the local organ works. In autumn 1779 I was paid in cash from the community funds differently. Which hereby certify. Wandersleben, November 15, 1779 Johann Stephan Schmaltz organ builder . In the 19th century it was wrongly believed that the Wandersleben organ was made by Schmaltz, probably because of the frequency of maintenance, which was documented in the municipal accounts. In fact, however, it came from Johann Georg Schröter .

In 1746/47 he created the organ in the Ohrdrufer St. Trinitatis Church . In a letter dated September 5, 1747, he asked for orders and a privilege from the Arnstadt consistory . In 1747 he built a new organ in the Riechheim church. On November 10, 1747, he wrote another letter to the consistory, enclosing testimonials about five of his organs and a drawing of an organ he had designed. When his teacher Thielemann fell ill in 1750, he continued his work and finished the organ in Rehestädt . Together with Thielemann he signed receipts for a total of 100 thalers for this work, which he received in installments.

In 1751 Schmaltz moved from Wandersleben to Arnstadt and received citizenship there. In Arnstadt's citizen book he is referred to as the privileged organ maker of Wandersleben . With the move, he also changed his signature: He now drew with the addition F (royal) S. (Black Castle) privileged organ builder , a reference to the princes of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen . As can be seen in the legal leaflet books, he probably lived in the Riedviertel in the "Haus unter dem Berge", but it is not known whether his workshop was also there. In that year he was also commissioned to build a new organ in the upper church ("Barfüßerkirche") in Arnstadt.

Anna Friederike Schmidt zu Geraberg (?) Was his first wife on April 30, 1743, who died on January 18, 1762 in Arnstadt. His second wife became Martha Maria Hentzoldt on November 25, 1762. She died in 1767 after five years of marriage. His third marriage was on September 18, 1769 in Arnstadt with the pastor's widow Juliane Maria Hähner, née Wechsel, from Thörey . Maria brought a son, Ludwig Wilhelm Hähner, into the marriage, who would later take over the organ builder workshop of his stepfather and continue it successfully. One of his works were major changes to the organ in Wandersleben in 1790, six years after Schmaltz's death.

Schmaltz maintained contact with the organist Johann Georg Ratzmann (probably not a member of the Ratzmann family of organ builders from Ohrdruf ), who worked in Arnstadt from 1739 to 1760 and succeeded Johann Ernst Bach I (1683–1739) after his death.

According to Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746–1819) ( New Historical-Biographical Lexicon of the Tonkünstler , 1812) Schmaltz also built organs in other parts of the Gehren Office . Apart from the above, no further documents are known to date.

Since it was common to reuse usable parts from previous organs in a new organ, it is not always possible to differentiate between a new organ, an extension and a reconstruction. The work was often delayed due to the lack of money on the part of the client, because on the other hand the organ builders had to offer financial security according to the contract. The organ builder was only responsible for the technical side of his work. Wood sculptors were used for the artistic aspects. Schmaltz's artistic partners in Wümbach were the sculptor Böhler from Arnstadt, in Ingersleben the sculptor David Nicolaus Widder, also from Arnstadt.

Johann Stephan Schmaltz died on April 28, 1784 as a royal Schwarzburg court organ maker in Arnstadt. The following entry can be read in the Arnstadt church registers: ... on April 28, at 3 a.m., Mr. Johann Stephan Schmaltz, Prince. Schwarzburg. privileged court organ maker and was on Thursday a. April 29th at 9 o'clock in the evening buried in silence and paid for the big bell. His stepson Hähner and his son Johann Wilhelm Gottlob continued his work. Hähner built organs in Wechmar , Milda and Geitersdorf and carried out repairs and conversions in Wandersleben (1790 and later) and Craula . Johann Wilhelm Gottlob Schmaltz built organs in Abtsbessingen and Almenhausen.

Important Schmaltz colleagues of his time in Thuringia were his teacher Thielemann, Johann Tobias Gottfried Trost (1651–1721) and his son Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost (~ 1680–1759). Since around 1770 almost all churches in the region had an organ, new organs were only built in individual cases until further notice. That only changed from the beginning to the middle of the 19th century, after the Wars of Liberation . Johann Valentin Knauf (1762–1847) and his son Friedrich (1802–1883), Georg Franz Ratzmann (1771–1846) and his son Friedrich Heinrich (1800–1881) were important representatives of the art of organ building .

Works

literature

  • Bernd Kramer: The Schröter organ in the St. Petrikirche in Wandersleben . Evangelical Lutheran Church Congregation, Wandersleben 1999.
  • Hartmut Ellrich, Theophil Heinke, Karsten Hoerenz: Between Hörsel and Wilder Gera. The churches of the superintendent in Waltershausen-Ohrdruf . Wartburg-Verlag, Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-86160-167-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Schmaltz, Johann Stephan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German organ builder
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1715
PLACE OF BIRTH Hiking life
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1784
Place of death Arnstadt