Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau

Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau
Company typeGmbH
Founded1820
HeadquartersWerder (Havel)
Key people
Michael Schuke, Johannes Schuke
ProductsPipe organs
Websitewww.schuke.de

The Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau is a company to build pipe organs, founded in 1820 in Potsdam. It was taken over by Alexander Schuke in 1894, and by his sons Karl Schuke and Hans-Joachim Schuke in 1933. From 1950, Hans-Joachim Schuke ran the workshop, now in East Germany, from 1953. It became a VEB, Potsdamer Schuke-Orgelbau in 1972, but Matthias Schuke was able to reprivatise it in 1990 after German reunification, naming it after his grandfather Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau. He moved the workshop to Werder (Havel) in 2004 and passed leadership to his sons in 2018.

History

The organ builder Gottlieb Heise founded the company in Potsdam in 1820, with a workshop in a courtyeard of a complex of buildings in the historic Dutch Quarter.[1] In 1848, his pupil Carl Ludwig Gesell [de] took over, first together with Gustav Schulz who soon founded his own workshop. His son Carl Eduard Gesell became head of the company in 1868. When he died without children in 1994, Alexander Schuke bought the company and made it one of the best-known organ building workshops in Brandenburg.[2] When he died in 1933, his two sons, Karl Schuke and Hans-Joachim Schuke led the company jointly.[3]

During World War II, Hans-Joachim Schuke was a Soviet prisoner of war.[4] In 1950 the brothers decided to found a second workshop in West Berlin because of deteriorating conditions, both politically and economically, for manufactoring in the GDR. Hans-Joachim Schuke led the Potsdam section, while Karl Schuke moved to the new Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelbauwerkstatt. In 1972, the Potsdam branch became a state-owned Volkseigener Betrieb VEB Potsdamer Schuke-Orgelbau.

After German reunification, Matthias Schuke, in the third generation and working in the company from 1974, was able to reprivatise the workshop in 1990. He named it after his grandfather Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau. He moved the company to new premises in Werder (Havel) in 2004.[2] In October 2018, Matthias Schuke passed leadership to his sons Johannes und Michael Schuke.

Musicologists appreciated the "romantic and symphonic sound" of Schuke organs, caused by diligent choice of material for the pipes and the production in their own workshop.[1]

List of works

The company's list of works has more than 630 new organs built between 1895 und 2024, more than 60 restoration works as of 2017, and expansions of existing organs.[1]

The following selected works list features their year of completion, opus location, name of the building, an image, the numbers of manuals, pedals (P) and stops and, if available, an additional reference, notes, a link, and an external link to the entry on the organindex.de website.

Year Op. Location Building Image Manuals Stops Notes
1895 1 Radewege [de] Dorfkirche [de] I/P 7 [5] designed by Carl Eduard Gesell → [1]
1906 28 Lübben (Spreewald) Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche [de] II/P 29
1935 146 Zehlendorf (Berlin) Emmaus-Kirche [de] II/P 25 Pionieering instrument of the organ reform movement; first Schleifladeninstrument of the company with mechanic tracture → organ
1936 153 Potsdam St. Peter and Paul III/P 41 → organ
1953 243 Stendal St. Nikolaus III/P 56 → [2]
1963 337 Tbilisi, Georgia Tbilisi State Conservatoire III/P 40
1966 371 Leipzig Thomaskirche III/P 47 dismantled in 1999, 42 stops and other parts used for the Fürstenwalde Cathedral in 2005
1969 402 Magdeburg Magdeburg Cathedral, transsept organ III/P 37
1981 499 Leipzig Gewandhaus IV/P 91 expanded by 2 stops in 2008
1988 552 Varna, Bulgaria Festival Centre III/P 53
1992 583 Erfurt Erfurt Cathedral III/P 63 → organ
1994 595 Tangermünde St. Stephan III/P 32 Restoration and reconstruction of the organ by Hans and Fritz Scherer [de] (1624)
1997 606 Lublin, Poland Henryk Wieniawski Philharmonie [pl] III/P 51
2003 614 Spandau St. Marien am Behnitz II/P 35
2005 613 Fürstenwalde St. Mary's Cathedral IV/P 69 using parts of Op. 371, built in 1966 for the Thomaskirche in Leipzig (III/P/47)
2006 616 Kaliningrad, Russia Königsberg Cathedral II/P 32 → choir organ
2008 618 Kaliningrad, Russia Königsberg Cathedral IV/P 90 → main organ
2008 619 Magdeburg Magdeburg Cathedral, main organ IV/P 93
2008 620 Zamora de Hidalgo, Mexiko Diocesan Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe III/P 51
2014 630 Pingtung City, Taiwan Pingtung Performing Arts Center III/P 45
2016 632 Kharkiv, Ukraine Philharmonic buildling IV/P 70

References

  1. ^ a b c Torsten Müller: Orgelpfeifen nach den Regeln der Vorväter. In: Berliner Zeitung, 23 December 2017, p. 20.
  2. ^ a b Orgelbauer. Archived 2021-02-06 at the Wayback Machine orgellandschaftbrandenburg.de; retrieved 17 July 2018.
  3. ^ Fischer: 100 Jahre Bund deutscher Orgelbaumeister. 1991, p. 301.
  4. ^ "Cathédrale évangélique Sainte-Catherine et Saint-Maurice, de Magdeburg (Allemagne)". Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  5. ^ Schuke-Werkverzeichnis Stand 2018, p. 25.

Further reading

  • Hermann Fischer (1991), 100 Jahre Bund deutscher Orgelbaumeister, Lauffen: Orgelbau-Fachverlag, ISBN 3-921848-18-0
  • Hannes Ludwig (2005), Orgelhandbuch Brandenburg. Band 1: Uckermark (Westteil), Berlin: Freimut & Selbst, ISBN 3-9805293-7-1
  • Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau GmbH (1994), 100 Jahre Alexander Schuke Orgelbau in Potsdam, Schwerin: Thomasius
  • Matthias Schuke (1995), "Alexander Schuke Potsdam, Orgelbau GmbH", Thüringer Orgeljournal, pp. 58–60

52°23′54″N 12°54′48″E / 52.398347°N 12.913452°E / 52.398347; 12.913452 (Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau GmbH)

allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Schuke_Potsdam_Orgelbau