Paul Ott (organ builder)

Paul Ott in 1954 building a new organ for Göttingen, St. Johannis

Paul Ott (born August 23, 1903 in Oberteuringen , † October 28, 1991 in Bovenden ) was a German organ builder and representative of the organ movement of the 20th century.

Life

Although he was supposed to take over his father's cheese dairy, Paul Ott decided to train as a carpenter . In 1928/1929 an apprenticeship at the Steinmeyer organ building company in Oettingen followed . Through his activity in the singing movement he got in contact with Karl Vötterle and Christhard Mahrenholz and was initially able to work independently on the premises of the Giesecke company in Göttingen . Since he was financially unable to set up his own workshop, Ott was also employed by the Hermann Eule company in Bautzen . In 1930 he made his first positive for the Marienkirche in Göttingen , but was not able to open his own workshop until 1932. As one of the few organ builders who at that time already considered the principles of pre-romantic organ building (e.g. using the sliding chest ), he soon received a number of important orders for small organs. Among other things, he built a house organ for Hugo Distler in 1938 .

In 1937 Ott received the master craftsman's certificate. Soon he began restoring historic organs in northern Germany that were recognized as important, such as Stade, St. Wilhadi and Cappel . It was not until after the Second World War, however, in the 1950s, that there were orders for larger instruments. The first three-manual new building by Otts was the organ of the Christ Church in Wolfsburg (1951). Further restorations concerned Lemgo , Borgentreich , Norden and Stade, St. Cosmae . The economic peak of the Ott workshop was in the 1960s and 1970s, when numerous instruments were built for customers in Germany and beyond in several European countries and overseas.

In 1980 the company, previously run as a limited partnership, had to file for bankruptcy. Order confirmations from home and abroad enabled the establishment of Paul Ott GmbH in Bovenden as a rescue company. Paul Otts son Dieter Ott (born June 13, 1934 - August 24, 2010) took over the Göttingen workshop, in which Paul Ott continued to work until his death. After the dissolution of Paul Ott GmbH on July 16, 1990, he initially continued it with Paul Ott Organ Care Service, which had been founded as a sole proprietorship the year before . With Dieter Otts death, the organ building tradition of the Göttingen Ott workshop came to an end.

At the beginning of 2011 the company archive of the Ott workshop was handed over to the Lower Saxony Economic Archive in Braunschweig . It comprises around 1400 archive items and has now been indexed.

rating

It was Paul Ott's historical merit to be the first organ builder to implement the ideas of the organ movement from a technical point of view. Above all, the return to the sliding chest with mechanical action should be mentioned here. The use of low wind pressure and the orientation of the disposition towards north German baroque organs , often in exaggerated form, however - judged later - led to the distortion of a number of historical organs during restorations. The careless handling of historical material was typical for organ building at the time. It resulted from the fact that more importance was attached to the ideal of the Neo-Baroque than to the actually recognizable historical condition of an organ. It should also be taken into account that the organ builder, as a restorer of historical instruments, primarily implements the work specifications of the experts involved. The organ builders Jürgen Ahrend and Rudolf Janke , both of Ott's former students, have distanced themselves from Ott's conception and approach and were able to restore a number of organs that Ott had modified.

List of works (selection)

The incomplete list includes some new organs and significant restorations. The size of the instruments is indicated with the number of manuals (Roman) and the number of sounding registers (Arabic). An independent pedal is indicated by a “P”, an attached pedal by a “p”.

New buildings

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1930	Goettingen	St. Mary		I.	7th	Opus 1, until 2008 in Leipzig-Gohlis , Friedenskirche. Private property since 2008
1932	Bunzlau	City parish church		I.	3	previously exhibition at the Kasseler Musiktage, not preserved
1932-1933	Slouch	Ev.-luth. church		I / P	6th	received heavily rebuilt (disposition, case and brochure design changed by organ builder Krawinkel)
1934	Knutbüren	Ev. church		I.	6th	Otts masterpiece, without pedal, originally with wind scoop foot operation (today motor), all registers divided into bass / treble that are switched by means of sliders and not pulls; Shelf 8 ′ replaced today by Sesquialtera
1935	Talk	Manor Church		I.	4th	receive
1935	Liebenburg	Cemetery chapel		I.	6th	receive
1935	Leipzig	Paul Rubardt House		I.	3	Bought back in 1937 and replaced with a larger instrument
1935	Goettingen	House Ludwig Doormann		II / P	10	receive
1936-1937	Neuenkirchen (Altes Land)	Ev.-luth. church		I / P	10	1989 Transfer to the new west gallery, restoration by Alfred Führer Orgelbau
1936-1937	Leipzig	Paul Rubardt House		II / P	7th	not received
1937	Mainz	House Adam Gottron		I.	2	Sold in 1939 and replaced with a larger instrument
1938	Stuttgart	House of Hugo Distler		II / P	15th	Restored in 1991 and slightly modified by Karl Schuke Berlin organ building workshop , in Lübeck, St. Jakobi , preserved
1936-1939	Ilsenburg	Castle Church		II / P	24	1968 dismantled and greatly modified by Erwin Lägel in Ilsenburg, St. Marien , re-erected
1939	Mainz	Adam Gottron house		II / P	7th	Handed over to the University of Mainz in 1947 and expanded to 9 / II / P
1940	Stade	Cemetery on the Horst		I / P	7th	Repairs 1977 (Ott) and 1990 (Haspelmath)
before 1941	Goettingen	St. John's Church		I / p	6th	Positive with bass / treble division; Color version later, 1948 installation of an attached pedal, 1985 new veil board by Rudolf Janke
1949	Goettingen	University of Göttingen , musical instrument collection		I.	4th	positive
1951	Wolfsburg	Christ Church		III / P	35
1951	Goettingen	Voigt Realschule		II / P	16	preserved but not playable. Housing design: Julius Ott, Harleshausen
1952	Goettingen	Friedenskirche		I / p	7th	New building as a parapet organ with double doors. 2006 New building by Bosch using the Ott organ as a Rückpositiv
1952/55/66	Hanover	Garden church		IV / P	58	The Rückpositiv is Jürgen Ahrend's masterpiece . Reconstruction and implementation in 2003/2004
1953	Freising	Ascension of Christ		II / P	23
1953	Bremen	Church of Our Lady		III / P	40	New building in the central nave in front of the west wall; Prospectus draft by Julius Ott, Harleshausen; 1964 rebuilt by Paul Ott; Overhauled in 1984 by Karl Schuke Berlin organ building workshop
1954	Gutersloh	Apostle Church		II / P	26th
1954	Elsdorf	All Saints Day		II / P	20th
1954/1960	Goettingen	St. John's Church		IV / P	52	Renovation and expansion in 1999/2000 by Rudolf Janke
1955?	Rhade	St. Gallus		II / P	24	New building using pipes from 4 different organs, u. a. in the Octav 2 ′ pipes from the 16th century
1956	Bonn	Kreuzkirche		IV / P	65
1956	bad Godesberg	Christ Church		III / P	44	2018 sold to France (Saint Antoine, Lyon), 2019 replaced by Winterhalter organ (31 registers, II / P)
1956	Goettingen	Christ Church		III / P	12 (27)	By 2016, only 12 of the 27 planned registers had been completed (Brustwerk and Rückpositiv were vacant). 2016 Expansion of the organ and completion of the missing registers by Orgelbau Bosch (III / P / 28).
1956/1963	Loccum Monastery	Monastery church of St. Maria and Georg		III / P	40	Built in 2 sections: 1956 Hauptwerk, Brustwerk and Pedal, 1963 Rückpositiv and some other stops. Organ case in the style of the 1950s by Jan Wilhelm Prendel . Replaced by a new building in 2012, sold to France.
1957	Detmold	Christ Church		III / P	40	Prospectus draft by Wulf Knipping
1957	Mülheim an der Ruhr	City Hall		III / P	51	The instrument has not been playable since water damage in the late 1980s.
1957	Morals	St. Dionysius		II / P	28	New building using various pipes from Philipp Furtwängler .
1957	Marl	Christ Church		II / P	24
1958	Hildesheim	St. Michael		III / P	42	Disassembled in 1999 and rebuilt in a slightly reduced form in Gera , St. Elisabeth in 2004 (III / P / 40) → Organ
1958/1962	Hanover	St. Mark's Church		IV / P	57	New intonation 1974, reorganization 1994
1959	Bad Staffelstein	Trinity Church		II / P	20th
1960	Bonn	Castle Church		II / P	23	Implemented in 2011 for the pilgrimage church Maria zum Rauhen Wind in Kälberau, replaced by the Klais organ
1960	Güntersen	St. Martini Church		I / P	11
1961	Apolda	St. Martin		II / P	10	originally built for the Paul Gerhardt School in Dassel , implemented in 2004
1961	Hirschegg	Hirschegg Cross Church			13
1963	Hamburg-Harburg	St. Johannis		III / P	40	Rückpositiv as continuo -instrument by a separate game table playable
1964	Goettingen	St. Albani		III / P	36	1990 renovation by Rudolf Janke
1964	Bremen-Blumenthal	Martin Luther Church		II / P	24	General overhaul 2011/2012
1964-1966	Neuenheerse	Collegiate Church of St. Saturnina		II / P	32	Reconstruction of the baroque organ behind the historical prospect by Andreas Reinecke (1714)
1966	Goettingen	St. Jacobi Church		IV / P	57	In 2007 Siegfried Schmid added a swell and swapped two registers
1966	Oberschleissheim	Trinity Church		II / P	20th
1966	Langenhagen	Emmaus Church		II / P	24
1967	Kristiansand	Kristiansand Domkirke		III / P	55	Decommissioned and replaced in 2011
1967	Munich	St. Mark		III / P	29	so-called "Bach organ"
1967	Nienburg / Weser	St. Michaels Church		II / P	24	1992 Installation of two new registers and general cleaning by the Tzschöckel company , Althütte
1968	Berlin-Friedrichsfelde	Church of the Good Shepherd		II / P
1968	Hamburg-Hoheluft-Ost	St. Mark		II / P	20th
1970	Stuttgart	Leonhard's Church		III / P	58
1970	Apen	Nikolaikirche			13
1970	Mountains	Marienkirche (Mariakirken)		III	37	Replaced in 2014 by a work by Weimbs Orgelbau . Relocated to the parish church of St. Georg in Schonungen
1971	Bingen am Rhein	St. Martin		IV / P	46	Hildegardis organ; 1995 Oberlinger equipped it with an electronic setting system
1972	Mainz old town	Antonite Chapel		III / P	34	1981, 1995 tuning and repair by Oberlinger, 1989 installation of a 256-fold typesetting system and a new register easel by Oberlinger.
1975	Poehlde	Johannes Servatius Church		II / P	14th	behind the historical prospectus of an unknown organ builder (1827)
1977	Tel Aviv	Immanuel Church		II / P	17th	Pedals in a separate housing on the right
1977-1988	Oslo	Oslo Konserthus		V / P	89	the largest organ in Norway at the time
1978-1979	Heusenstamm	St. Cecilia (Balthasar Neumann Church)		II / P	23	New organ in existing case, partly using pipes from the previous organs (Schlimbach 1907, Schmidt 1956)
1979	Fürstenfeldbruck	St. Magdalena		III / P	35	→ organ
1983	Bad Dürkheim	Castle Church of St. Ludwig		II / P	27	Restored in 2007
1990	Bornheim (Rhineland)	Martin Luther Church		II / P	12	as a replacement for a small organ that burned down in 1986

Restorations and other work

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1932	Barterode	St. Pankratii		II / P	20th	Extension of the organ by Johann Dietrich Kuhlmann (1825) by a Rückpositiv with 5 registers. This conversion has since been reversed; the Rückpositiv was converted into an independent positive and set up in Herzberg / Harz.
1937, 1961-1963	Stade	St. Wilhadi		III / P	40	After the first renovation by Ott in 1937, the rear work (diatonic) stood on the gallery with a free pipe prospect. After the second renovation by Ott, it was placed in the parapet as a Rückpositiv with a baroque prospectus (but in wrong proportions).
1938	Memmingen	St. Martin		III / P	49	Organ from St. Martin (Memmingen) , extension of the Walcker organ (II / P, 33) by a Rückpositiv
1937-1939	Cappel	St. Peter and Paul		II / P	30th	Repairs, changes → organ of St. Peter and Paul (Cappel)
1948	Stade	St. Cosmae et Damiani		III / P	42	Organ from St. Cosmae et Damiani (Stade) ; Repair, changes
1948	north	Ludgerikirche		III / P	46	Organ of the Ludgerikirche (north) ; Reconstruction 1957–1959: changes
1950	Goettingen	St. Mary		III / P	48	Organ of the parish church of St. Marien (Göttingen) ; Change of disposition
1953	Herford	Herford Cathedral		II / P	21st	Extension of the swallow's nest organ by Johann Andreas Zuberbier as well as a new positive organ on the music gallery
1959-1960	Flörsheim am Main	St. Gallus		III / P	39	Comprehensive revision of the Johann Jakob Dahm organ from 1709
1963	Ostönnen	St. Andrew		I.	8th	Organ of St. Andreas (Ostönnen) , repair, relocation
1964	Bremen	Church of Our Lady		III / P	40	Reconstruction of the organ built in 1953. Implementation in the south aisle, new housing by Dieter Oesterlen ; Overhauled in 1984 by Karl Schuke Berlin organ building workshop

literature

• Karl Heinz Bielefeld: organs and organ builder in Göttingen . Pape Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-921140-75-8 .
• Uwe Pape : Paul Ott - protagonist in the construction of slider chest organs between the two world wars. In: Alfred Reichling (Ed.): Aspects of the organ movement. Merseburger, Berlin / Kassel 1995, ISBN 3-87537-261-1 , pp. 263-298.
• Uwe Pape: Paul Ott and the beginnings of the organ movement. Pape, Berlin 1979. (Supplement to the Hugo Distler record cassette - The composer's portrait 1001 ).

Web links

Commons : Orgeln by Paul Ott  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Dietrich Wölfer: Hugo Distler's house organ. The chronicle of an odyssey and its contemporary history. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2008, ISBN 978-3-7950-1284-7 .
2. ↑ List of Ott organs in the USA ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , seen August 17, 2012. 
3. ^ Bielefeld: Organs and Organ Builders in Göttingen. 2007, p. 367.
4. ↑ Rudolf Janke: Movement around the organ movement. Notes from practice . In: Organ International . No. 2 , 2002, p. 78-86 .
5. ^ Stephan Pollok: Organ movement and neo-baroque in the Ruhr area between 1948 and 1965 . Ruhr University, Bochum 2017, p. 308 ( ruhr-uni-bochum.de [PDF; accessed on October 5, 2017]).
6. ↑ Organ in Blumenthal , seen August 17, 2012.
7. ↑ Pastoral Association Bad Driburg Organ Works in the Neuenheerse Collegiate Church
8. ↑ Marienkirche Bergen: New organ ( memento of the original from April 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 4, 2015. 
9. ↑ The organ in the parish church of St. Georg zu Schonungen, accessed on April 4, 2015.
10. ^ Organ in Tel Aviv , seen August 16, 2012.
11. ↑ Church music Bad Dürkheim: organs , seen August 18, 2012.
12. ↑ Representation of the organs in Herford Minster ( memento of the original from January 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Remarks

1. ^ Lower Saxony Economic Archives Braunschweig, holdings NWA 43