Leopold Rotenburger

Leopold Rotenburger (* around 1568 probably in Franconia ; † July 31, 1653 in Salzburg ) worked as an organ builder in Salzburg and Innsbruck . He was the first court organ maker (1598–1653) in the Prince Archbishopric of Salzburg , an office that Wolf Dietrich had created with a decree of March 1, 1597 as part of the reorganization of cathedral music.

Life

Leopold Rotenburger was resident in Salzburg by 1598 at the latest, because that year his son Paul was baptized in the cathedral on November 28th, and his son Mathias two years later . His first wife must have died because he was called a widower in 1622. Strangely enough, Leopold Rotenburger had illegitimate children, but all from the same wife, Margarethe Gierstlinger (also: Geißtler, Geißler) from Oberteisendorf , whom he married on November 22, 1627 in Mülln : Ursula (baptized in the cathedral on March 1, 1619), Joannes ( baptized in the cathedral on January 29, 1622), Jakob (baptized in the cathedral on November 18, 1625) and Georg, already married, (baptized in Mülln on March 22, 1628). After the death of his second wife, he married a third time on September 13, 1634 in the Sebastianskirche , namely Anna Winklhammer. Leopold Rotenburger first lived in the "Heubel-Haus in the Prüggen district" - a house near the so-called Platzl - after 1629 in Linzergasse 27. Since 1612 he was a court organ maker in the court orchestra and received a monthly salary of 5 guilders. This makes him the first verifiable court organ maker in Salzburg. In addition to the Salzburg court, the Innsbruck court also became his field of activity, since after Georg Gemelich's death in 1611 no organ builder had resided there. In Innsbruck, Leopold Rotenburger did not work with his sons, but with journeymen Johann Frondt and Johann Geyr. On October 15, 1643, he sold his house to his son Paul and must have moved to another house on Linzergasse. On July 31, 1653, the “organ maker in Linzergasse” died at the age of 85.

List of works (selection)

The table lists some of his new builds and repairs.

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1613 or before 1627	Torren in Golling	St. Nicholas		I.	5	The positive was only ascribed to Leopold Rotenburger, it could also be from Butz , who worked in Salzburg in 1612/13. It stood in the parish and pilgrimage church on the Dürrnberg until 1860 , when it was replaced by another at the instigation of Franz and Felix Gruber. The instrument is the oldest church organ in Salzburg.
1617	Michaelbeuern	Collegiate church
1622	Raitenhaslach	Monastery church
1628	Salzburg	Salzburg Cathedral				Two organs in the crossing of the cathedral dome in 1628
1629	innsbruck	Court Church		II / P	15th	New positive and renovation of the Ebert organ .
1634	Neustift near Brixen	Neustift Abbey (collegiate church)				Two new organs
1645	innsbruck	Parish church				Transfer and remodeling of the organ

literature

• Otmar Heinz: Leopold Rotenburger . In: Early baroque organs in Styria . On the genesis of a southern German-Austrian type of instrument from the 17th century. Vienna / Münster 2012 (Research on the historical regional studies of Styria, published by the Historical Commission for Styria , Volume 53), ISBN 978-3-643-50232-2 , pp. 160f.
• Gerhard Walterskirchen: Organs and Organ Builders in Salzburg from the Middle Ages to the Present . Contributions to 700 years of organ building in the city of Salzburg. Dissertation University of Salzburg 1982, OCLC 163517013 .

Web links

• Organ landscape Tirol Rotenburger, Leopold

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ digitized version
2. ^ Otmar Heinz: The genesis of the south German-Austrian baroque organ in the 17th century . Art historical, organ building and liturgical aspects using the example of Styria, dissertation: Augsburg 2008, p. 160f.
3. ↑ digitized version