Wilhelm Rühle

Wilhelm Rühle (born February 27, 1906 in Eisenberg-Moritzburg ; † January 18, 1993 ) was a German organ builder and master carpenter . The family business is continued in the third generation and has emerged through the restoration of organs by Gottfried Silbermann and other central German organ builders.

biography

Wilhelm Rühle was trained as a carpenter in Hellerau and completed an apprenticeship as an organ builder at Klais in Bonn . From 1926 to 1928 he embarked on the journeyman's migration , which took him from Scandinavia to Turkey. He then studied church music in Dresden .

In 1932 Rühle opened an organ workshop in Moritzburg . The restoration of a positive for Prince Ernst Heinrich von Sachsen , which Johann Ernst Hähnel had built in 1725, earned him special recognition in 1933 . The first new buildings were built under the influence of the organ movement .

In 1935 he married Dora Zschoche. During the Second World War, the machines in the workshop had to be forcibly sold. Rühle worked in furniture manufacturing for two years before he was drafted into the military and returned from captivity in 1947.

Rühle founded his workshop again in Moritzburg and initially kept afloat with instrument repairs and carpentry work. Gradually, however, he succeeded in gaining a good reputation as an organ builder and restorer.

successor

Wilhelm Rühle's son Wieland Rühle (* 1938) learned organ building in his father's workshop, studied with Ernst Hönig in Bautzen and took over management of the company in 1988. The grandson Christoph Rühle (born February 6, 1980) trained as an organ builder at Mönch Orgelbau (Überlingen) and Orgelbau Waltershausen and has worked in the family business since 2005. Since 2007 he has been running the business under the name "Workshop for Organ Builders C. Rühle" in the third generation.

List of works (selection)

The list includes works by the Rühle workshop. The size of the instruments is indicated in the fifth column by the number of manuals and the number of sounding registers in the sixth column. A capital “P” stands for an independent pedal, a lowercase “P” for an attached pedal.

New buildings and reconstructions

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1932	Moritzburg	Deacon House				first work, destroyed in the war
1932	Dresden	Kreuzkirche , choir organ				not received
around 1938	Hennstedt					receive
1954	Elsterwerda	Church "Sorrowful Mother"				Masterpiece Wilhelm Rühle
1966	Cossebaude	Ev.-luth. church
1968	Schmiedeberg	To the Holy Trinity		I / P		New building behind the prospectus by Johann Tobias Dressel and Johann Christian Dressel (1716)
1969	Tharandt	Mountain church				2nd organ from 1806 (prospectus received from Johann Christian Kayser ) 3rd organ from 1969 (Wilhelm Rühle)
1971	Plauen	Lutherhaus, community hall		I / P	11
1977	Schmannewitz	Schmannewitz Church		II / P	17th
1982	Gera	Community House of the Christian Community		I.	7th
1982	Val Gardena	Martinskirche
1983	Werdau -Leubnitz					Masterpiece Wieland Rühle
1991	Radebeul	Johanneskapelle
1992	Moritzburg	Castle chapel
1995	Bonn	Emmaus Church		II / P	14th
1999-2000	Erfurt	Michaeliskirche		II / P	15th	Reconstruction of the organ by Ludwig Compenius (1652); Large parts of the prospectus case and 27 prospectus pipes received
2002	Cologne	Ev. Kreuzkirche		II / P	15th	2007 due to closure of the Cologne Thomas Church converted
2005	Chemnitz	Jakobikirche		I / P	12
2012	Berlin-Mahlsdorf	Theodor Fliedner Home		II / P	17th	in the Italian style

Restorations and conversions

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1935	Bocka (Windischleuba)	Village church		I / P	10	Restoration of the organ by Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost (1746); Remains received
1977	Cammerswalde	Village church		II / P	18th	Restoration of the organ by Adam Gottfried Oehme (1776)
1968	Pfaffroda	St. George		I / P	14th	Restoration of the organ by Gottfried Silbermann (1715); largely preserved
1972	Bockau	Ev. church				Restoration of the organ by Urban Kreutzbach (1860)
1973/1974	Dorfchemnitz	Ev. church
1977/1978	Burkhardswalde	Village church		II / P	15th	Restoration of the organ by Johann Daniel Ranft (1764)
1979	Beicha	Village church
1981	Hirschfeld (Brandenburg)	Hirschfeld village church
1987	Reichenberg (Moritzburg)	Reichenberger Church				Realization of the organ by Jacob Oertel (1760) from Borna
1971-1976	Schmalkalden	Wilhelmsburg Castle		I.	6th	Restoration of the organ by Daniel Meyer (1589)
1991	Koethen	Koethen Castle		I / p	6th	Restoration of the Zuberbier organ (1755)
1995-1996	Large flour	St. George's Church		II / P	22nd	Restoration of the organ by Gottfried Silbermann (1718); 8 registers reconstructed
1996-1997	Zöblitz	City Church		II / P	20th	Restoration of the organ by Gottfried Silbermann (1742) and return to the original disposition; largely preserved
1997-1998	Frankenstein	Village church		I / P	13	Restoration of the organ by Gottfried Silbermann (1752)
1999	Helbigsdorf	Helbigsdorf Church		II / P	17th	sound restoration of the organ by Gottfried Silbermann (1728); preserved almost unchanged
2001	Forchheim	Protestant church		II / P	20th	Restoration of the organ by Gottfried Silbermann (1726); largely preserved
2005	Judenbach / Thuringia	St. Nicholas		II / P	15th	Restoration of the organ by an unknown builder (around 1730)
2006	Ringenwalde	Ringenwalde village church		I / P	12	Restoration and reconstruction of the probably last surviving church organ by Johann Peter Migendt (1760); Supplemented by an independent pedal based on the organ Migendt in the castle church in Stettin
2007	Twiste (twist valley)	St. Vitus		II / P	12	Restoration of the organ by Jacob Vogt (1862), in collaboration with Orgelbau Waltershausen GmbH
2008	Dark Mountains	Trinity Church		II / P	22nd	Restoration of the organ by Georg Franz Ratzmann (1830)
2009	Buttlar / Rhön	Birth of Mary				Restoration of the organ by Guido Knauf (1871)
2010	Whitish (Gera)	Weißig village church		I.	8th	Restoration of the organ positive by Christian Ernst Friederici (1740)
2011	Denstedt	Denstedt village church		II / P	19th	Restoration of the "Liszt organ" by the Peternell brothers (1861)

literature

• Hermann Fischer: 100 years of the Association of German Organ Builders . Orgelbau-Fachverlag, Lauffen 1991, ISBN 3-921848-18-0 , p. 286 .
• Uwe Pape (Ed.): Lexicon of North German Organ Builders. Vol. 1: Thuringia and the surrounding area . Pape, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-921140-86-4 , pp. 238 .

Web links

• Website of Orgelbau Rühle
• 75 years of organ building Rühle. From the Moritzburger Gemeindeblatt from April 2007 (PDF file, 397 KB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: 100 years of the Association of German Organ Builders. 1991, p. 286.
2. ^ Pape: Lexicon of North German Organ Builders. 2009, p. 238.