Max Dreher

Max Turner (* 27. May 1886 in Hausen am Tann ; † 27. November 1967 in Salzburg ) worked from 1916 in the province of Salzburg as an organ builder .

Life

Turntable, Maria Plain 1939

Max Dreher was born as the son of elementary school teacher and organist Jakob Dreher in Hausen am Tann, on the edge of the Swabian Alb . First he learned the carpentry trade, then he did an apprenticeship with organ builder Xaver Mönch in Überlingen . In 1905 he passed the journeyman's examination in Konstanz , after which he tried to gain experience with various organ builders: in 1909 and 1910 at Goll & Cie. in Lucerne , then in the piano factory Haegele & Co. in Aalen (founded by Heinrich Haegele in 1846, taken over by Euterpe in 1981 ), at Röwer in Strasbourg ( Ernst Röver  ?), and finally in 1911 he went to the subsidiary of the H . Koulen & Sohn to Augsburg , where he passed the master's examination as an organ builder.

In 1916 he moved to Salzburg and joined the Matthäus Mauracher II company as a partner . On October 15, 1917, he became a partner in Hans Mertel in Gnigl , the organ building workshop that was created in this way traded as Mertel & Dreher . Due to the economic decline after the First World War , the company had to be closed, Mertel and Dreher were accepted into the Salzburg Orgelbau-AG Cäcilia , which was founded in 1923. Hans Mertel left the company again in 1928, while Max Dreher and Leopold Flamm took over the Cäcilia on January 12, 1929. The company Dreher & Flamm , Werkstätten der Cäcilia -AG, was run as a general partnership, existed until 1953 and was based in Salzburg- Parsch , Fürbergstraße 50. Until 1939, the Dreher & Flamm company in Augsburg, Sonnenstraße 4, had one Branch operation, from 1950 one was set up in Freilassing , Klebing 2.

Dreher & Flamm was dissolved on March 11, 1953 and re-registered as Dreher & Reinisch on April 28, 1954 . Max Reinisch , Max Dreher's son-in-law, was initially a partner in the company, but in December 1957 he became the sole owner of Dreher & Reinisch .

In the last years of his life, Max Dreher had to withdraw more and more from active business because of his reduced eyesight. He died at the age of 82 on November 27, 1967 and was buried in the Salzburg-Aigen cemetery. By then, around 250 organ works had been built or largely renovated at home and abroad under his aegis .

Awards

• 1950 the papal order pro ecclesia at pontifice
• 1958 the Silver Medal of Merit for services to the Salzburg economy
• In 1965 the Republic of Austria received the Gold Medal of Merit .

Works

The tables only list a few documented new buildings and extensive renovations.

Mertel & Dreher

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1918	Salzburg	Collegiate Church of St. Peter		II / P	39	The organ was approved on November 4th and 5th, 1918. As part of a church renovation, Mathis Orgelbau relocated the sounding instrument to the southern oratory of the collegiate church in 2019 . → Mertel-Dreher organ
1919	Hopfgarten in Brixental	Parish church		II / P	30th	The instrument was approved by the Salzburg cathedral organist Franz Sauer on August 30 and 31, 1919 . This was followed by an organ concert in which Franz Sauer and Joseph Messner also took part.

Dreher & Flamm

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1929	Mariazell	Mariazell Basilica		(?) / P	60	Conversion and expansion in 4 factories with 2 gaming tables → Article: Organs
1930	Munich	St. Gabriel		III / P	50	New building; The organ was replaced in 1970 by a new building from the Walcker company . A large part of the pipe material and the prospectus were reused in a modified form.
1931	Wiener Neustadt	Neukloster Abbey		III / P	40	Max Dreher destroyed the historic organ from 1737 by Johann Michael Blaschewitz (also: Blaszewitz). It was reconstructed in 1985 by Helmut Allgäuer.
1931	Erdberg (Vienna)	Parish church to the hll. Peter and Paul		II / P	23	"... Vienna's first purely electric church organ".
1931	Brixen	Dom		III / P	60	Using the old stock of pipes. Replaced in 1980 by Orgelbau Pirchner . → Article: main organ
1931	St. Florian	Collegiate church		IV / P	91	Equipping the Bruckner organ with an electric console and redesigning the entire system with an electric action
1932	Salzburg	Borromeo		III / P	32	Third manual as a choir organ near the altar (cleared in the 1980s). Restored in 2019 by Orgelbau Linder as a two-manual organ.
1934	Gabelbach	St. Martin				Reconstruction of the Marx Günzer organ from 1609, in which he equipped it with a pneumatic console and pneumatized the main work box with Bark levers .
1938	Niederalm	Niederalm parish church
1949	Faistenau	Faistenau parish church		II / P	12	Dismantled in 2017, it was replaced by an instrument from Linder in 2018 . → Article: Organ

Dreher and Reinisch

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1953	Klagenfurt	Konzerthaus, Great Hall		IV / P	63	In 2013 the organ was cleared and its pipes stored in the attic.
1956	Knittelfeld	City parish church		II / P	26th
1956	Maxglan	Parish Church of St. Maximilian		III / P	43	The third manual is Fernwerk and at the same time a choir organ
1963	Hallein	Parish church Hallein		II / P	30th	See: Gruber Orgel → [1] , accessed on May 9, 2017.
1981	Court near Salzburg	Parish church		II / P	15th	In 2009 it was cleaned and repaired by Orgelbau Roland Hitsch.

literature

• 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.

Web links

Commons : Max Dreher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gerhard Walterskirchen: Organs and Organ Builders in Salzburg from the Middle Ages to the Present . Dissertation University of Salzburg 1982, p. 222 and 227.
2. ^ Digitized p. 57.
3. ^ Johann Josef Mertel, organ builder (born May 14, 1873 in Marktschorgast , Upper Franconia; † December 14, 1937 in Salzburg, Gnigl).
4. ↑ Singende Kirche , Vol. 14 (1966), No. 4, p. 24. Quoted from: Gerhard Walterskirchen: Orgeln and Organ Builders in Salzburg from the Middle Ages to the Present . Dissertation University of Salzburg 1982, p. 227.
5. ^ Organ building in Salzburg in the 20th century . In: Gerhard Walterskirchen: Organs and Organ Builders in Salzburg from the Middle Ages to the Present . Dissertation University of Salzburg 1982, p. 215ff.
6. ↑ digitized version
7. ↑ digitized version
8. ↑ Franz Körndle: The history of Günzer organ from 1609 in Gabelbach . In: Ars Organi . Vol. 64, 2016/4, pp. 199–202, here p. 201.