Organ building Kuhn

Organ building Kuhn
legal form	Corporation
founding	1864
Seat	Männedorf , Switzerland
management	Hans-Peter Keller ( managing director ); ; Dieter Utz ( Chairman of the Board of Directors )
Branch	Musical instrument making
Website	www.orgelbau.ch

The Kuhn Organ Builders Ltd is a Swiss organ building company based in Männedorf in the canton of Zurich .

history

The company was founded by Johann Nepomuk Kuhn in Männedorf in 1864 after the Reformed community there had built a new church organ. This was made by EF Walcker & Cie. delivered from Ludwigsburg in Württemberg and set up by two employees in Männedorf: Johann Nepomuk Kuhn (1827–1888) and Heinrich Spaich. In the autumn of 1863 the community concluded a tuning and maintenance contract with these local organ builders from the Walcker company.

After tuning other organs in the area, they returned to Ludwigsburg, announced their position there and settled in Männedorf. The establishment of the company was very much welcomed by the community elders to promote local handicrafts.

In the following decades, Kuhn's organ builder and his competitor Friedrich Goll dominated Swiss organ building. The further development is as follows: The founder's son, Carl Theodor Kuhn (1865–1925), took over the management in 1888. In 1906 he founded the Nancy branch , the second in France after Bellegarde. The Bellegarde branch merged with Charles Michel Merklin in Lyon in 1907 . In 1925 the business was transferred to the “Orgelbau Th. Kuhn Aktiengesellschaft”.

In 1958 the export of new organs was resumed. Friedrich Jakob became director in 1967. After the in-house restoration department had started in 1974, increased restoration work abroad began in 1979. From 1988 onwards there was a concentration on the export of new organs. In 2000 the company name was changed to "Orgelbau Kuhn AG".

Companies

The company is organized in the legal form of a stock corporation and is entered in the commercial register of the Canton of Zurich. The share capital is 1.5 million Swiss francs. Orgelbau Kuhn AG is a member of the Society of Swiss Organ Builders (GSO) and the International Society of Organbuilders (ISO). The managing director and manager of “Technology & Design” is Hans-Peter Keller. Organ builder Gunter Böhme is the manager of the “Sound & Restoration” division, and organ builder Markus Hahn is the head of “Organ Maintenance”. Dieter Utz is the Chairman of the Board of Directors .

Organ buildings (selection)

New buildings

year	place	Building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1884	Amden	Parish Church of St. Gallus		II / P	16
1885	Saarbrücken	St. Arnual Collegiate Church				1995 replaced by a new building from Kuhn
1887	Schleitheim	reformed Church		II / P	23
1904	Basel	Joseph's Church		III / P	38
1913	Saas-Fee	cath. church		II / P	16	replaced by a new building by Späth Orgelbau with II / P / 25 in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, newly built in 1963 (see Saas-Fee # churches )
1914	Bern	Swiss National Exhibition 1914		II / P	16	In 1915 transferred to the Roman Catholic Church in Männedorf , demolished in 1992
1914	Hottingen (City of Zurich)	St. Anton		III / P	50	late Romantic disposition by Fridolin Roth (1871–1961), gaming table as a reduced copy by St-Sulpice (Paris) ; In 2002 a remote plant was added, which was prepared for expansion in 1926
1929	Olten SO	Friedenskirche		III / P	45	pneumatic pocket drawer; Restored by Kuhn in 2008 and returned to its original condition
1931	Zurich - Wipkingen	Guthirt		III / P	50	1977 revision
1936	Basel	First Church of Christian Scientist		III / P	26th	electric pocket shop
1946	Thalwil	Reformed Church Thalwil		III / P	49
1948	Zurich - Wiedikon	Heart of jesus		III / P	41
1951	Zurich	Church narrow		III / P	53	1994 extended by a remote control from Norbert Stengele to III / P / 62
1953	Bremgarten AG	City Church		III / P	33	Destroyed in a fire in 1984
1953	Adelboden	Village church		II / P	17th	Revised in 1990
1956	Basel	Muenster		IV / P	72	Since 2002 in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Moscow)
1957	Dornach SO	Organ in the Great Hall of the Goetheanum		II / P	30th	Comprehensively revised in 2004 by Rösel & Hercher Orgelbau
1958	Langnau in the Emmental	reformed Church		III / P	38
1960	Zurich - Narrow	Epiphany		III / P	34
1964-1965	Hard (City of Zurich)	St. Felix and Regula		III / P	32
1970	Zurich	Preacher Church		III / P	46
1974	Zurich - Wollishofen	St. Francis		III / P	35
1974	new York	Lincoln Center , Alice Tully Hall		IV / P	62
1978	Hallau	St. Moritz mountain church		I / P	13	in the Italian style
1987	Basel	Pauluskirche		III / P	53
1988	Frankfurt-Höchst	Justinuskirche		III / P	43	Concert organ behind a baroque prospect
1991	Nuremberg	St. Martin		III / P	46	Concert organ
1993	Cologne	St. Kunibert		III / P	41
1993	Männedorf	St. Stephan		II / P	15th	Replacement for the Kuhn organ from 1914/1915
1995	Saarbrücken	St. Arnual Collegiate Church		III / P	44
1996	Minden	Dom		III / P	62	Main organ
1998	Altona	St. John's Church	Image wanted BW	III / P	48	After the previous organ was destroyed by fire (1994)
1998	Lübeck	Provost Church of the Sacred Heart		III / P	30th
1999	Bern	Muenster		IV / P	71
1999	Munich	University of Music and Theater		III / P	52	→ organ
2001	Minden	Dom		II / P	27	Choir organ
2002	Duisburg	Salvator Church		III / P	41
2003	Osnabrück	Dom		III / P	53	Western organ with 'tower'
2004	eat	Philharmonic		III / P	62
2005	Rümlang	St. Peter		II / P	22nd
2006	Weyhe	Felicianuskirche		II / P	19th
2008	Gerlingen	St. Peter and Paul		II / P	27
2009	Heidelberg	Jesuit Church		III / P	54
2010	Luneburg	St. Johannis		II / P	23	French symphonic sound concept as a supplement to the main organ from the Renaissance and Baroque → organs from St. Johannis (Lüneburg)
2011	Korbach	St. Kilian		III / P	34
2019	Freiburg in Breisgau	Muenster		II / P	23	Replacement for the former choir organ

Restorations

year	place	Building	Manuals	register	Remarks
1954	Sion	Basilique de Valere	I / P	8th	→ Organ of the Basilique de Valère
1976/1977	Lucerne	Hofkirche St. Leodegar	V / P	84	Large court organ by Johann and Niklaus Geisler (1633–1650), expanded by Friedrich Haas (1858/1862)
1981-1983	Vineyard	St. Martin's Basilica	IV / PP	65	→ organ
1985-1987	Kiedrich	St. Valentinus	II / P	20th	→ organ
1984/1990	Klosterneuburg	Klosterneuburg Abbey	III / P	35	Organ by Johannes Freundt (1642)
1990	Rheinau ZH	Monastery church	III / P	36	Main organ by Johann Christoph Leu (1715)
1991	Rheinau ZH	Monastery church	I / P	12	Choir organ by Johann Christoph Albrecht (1710) / Johann Conrad Speisegger (1746)
2000-2002	Arnsberg	Oelinghausen Monastery	II / P	19th	Organ by Johann Berenhard Klausing (1714–1717) → Organ of the Oelinghausen monastery
2000-2004	Ochsenhausen	St. George	IV / P	47	In collaboration with Johannes Klais Organ Builder ; Organ by Joseph Gabler (1728–1734, 1751–1755) → organ
2006	Attnang-Puchheim	Pilgrimage Basilica Maria Puchheim	II / P	24	Organ by Orgelbau Breinbauer (1891)
2006/2007	Seewen SO	Museum of Music Automatons	II / P		Organ by M. Welte & Sons → Philharmonic Organ
2009	Vornbach	Parish Church of the Assumption of Mary	II / P	20th	Organ by Johann Ignaz Egedacher (1732)
2009-2011	Vienna	Franciscan Church	II / P	20th	Organ by Johann Wöckherl (1642) → Organ
2010–2012	Beilngries	City parish church St. Walburga	III / P	44	largest surviving organ by Joseph Franz Bittner (1913) → organ
2014	Trondheim	Nidaros Cathedral	IV / P	125	→ Steinmeyer organ from 1930