# Wilhelm Sauer

Wilhelm Carl Friedrich Sauer (23 March 1831 – 9 April 1916) was a German pipe organ builder. One of the famous organ builders of the Romantic period, Sauer and his company W. Sauer Orgelbau built over 1,100 organs during his lifetime, amongst them the organs at Bremen Cathedral, Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, and Berlin Cathedral, which is considered to be "his final great masterpiece".

## Early years

Wilhelm Sauer was born in Schönbeck, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the son of blacksmith and self-educated organ builder Ernst Sauer (1799–1873) from Karlsburg in Pomerania, and his wife Johanna Christine, née Sumke (1800–1882). His parents married in 1822. He was the brother of Johann Ernst Sauer (1823–1842). When Wilhelm was seven years old, the family moved to the neighboring town of Friedland, where his father built a factory and started the commercial organ business. Wilhelm spent his youth there, attending school, with the idea that he would transfer to the Berlin Academy. However, when his older brother Johann died in December 1842, it was decided that Wilhelm would be the one to inherit his father's business and continue the work he had started building organs. Wilhelm received an early education about organ building from his father. He left home in 1848 to further his education in this business, including studying with E.F. Walcker (1851–1853) in Ludwigsburg and with Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in Paris.

## Career

In 1855, Sauer took over the management of the German crown branch in his father's factory, which had been opened there for the Prussian market in order to avoid customs duties. On 1 March 1856 Sauer finally opened his own business as Wilhelm Sauer, organ builder in Frankfurt (Oder), which grew quickly with temporary branches in Königsberg (1860). International orders soon followed. By 1882, he had completed 380 organs. In 1883, Sauer was awarded the Distinction of Akademischer Künstler and the following year, on 18 April 1884, he was named by the cabinet as "Royal Organ Builder".
In his lifetime, Wilhelm Sauer and his staff built more than 1,100 organs. His largest and most famous organs are, amongst others, in Berlin Cathedral (1903, IV/113), Thomaskirche in Leipzig (1888/1908, III/88), and in Görlitz City Hall (1910, IV.72). Two of his 1897 organs are in Namibia: one in Windhoek's Christ Church and another in Swakopmund's Lutheran Church. In 1910, Sauer sold the company to his longtime manager and deputy Paul Walcker, son of E. F. Walcker.
At least 10 of his organs were installed in Latvia.

## Personal life

He married Minna Auguste Penske in 1859, the daughter of a cantor, and the couple had a daughter named Johanna (1859–1887). His wife died in 1876. On 7 September 1878, he married his second wife Anna Bauer (18 January 1848 – 11 August 1924). She was the daughter of a brewery owner and member of the city council in Potsdam. They had two sons: Wilhelm (1879–1962) and Franz Gustav Adolf (1883–1945 missing). His grandson, Wolfgang Sauer (1920–1989), went to the United States in 1964 and became a professor of German history at the University of California, Berkeley. Wilhelm Sauer's grave stone is now in Kleistpark in Frankfurt (Oder), where he died.

## Notable works

| Year | Opus | Place | Church | Manuals | Registers | Comments |
| 1853 | | Rechlin-Boek | St Johannis Church | I/P | 6 | Oldest preserved work by Wilhelm Sauer. Pedalboard and bourdon added by Carl Börger about 1900. Restored by Christian Scheffler 1995–2003. |
| 1864 | 94 | Marienwerder (present-day Kwidzyn) | Cathedral Church | III/P | 49 | To be restored. |
| 1869 | 95 | Berlin | St Thomas Church | IV/P | 52 | Damaged by Allied bombing and dismantled in 1944. |
| 1870 | | Labiau (present-day Polessk) | Town Church | | | Replaced an older organ by Johann Josua Mosengel; demolished after 1945. |
| 1872 | 235 | Zeschdorf-Döbberin | Village Church | I/P | 8 | |
| 1874 | 209 | Doberlug-Kirchhain | Dobrilugk Abbey Church | II/P | 26 | |
| 1879 | 248 | Frankfurt (Oder) | St Gertraud Church | III/P | 36 | |
| 1883 | 401 | Wernigerode | Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche) | II/P | 30 | Baroque organ facade. |
| 1884 | 419 | Lauchhammer-Kostebrau | Village Church | I/P | 7 | Built for the Protestant Church in Klettwitz, at present location since 1907. |
| 1886 | | Herne-Eickel | St John's Church (Johanneskirche) | II/P | 33 | Destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944. |
| 1887 | 475 | Frankfurt-Griesheim | Benediction Church (Segenskirche) | II/P | 28 | Built for the Protestant Church in Bochum-Laer (demolished in 1974), at present location since 1995. |
| 1888 | | Göttingen | St Nicolas' Church (University Church) | II/P | 23 | |
| 1889 | 501 | Leipzig | St Thomas Church | III/P | 63 | Extended to 88 registers in 1908. |
| 1889 | 505 | Amsterdam | Basilica of St. Nicholas | III/P | 40 | Two Barker levers. |
| 1890 | 530 | Bad Freienwalde-Bralitz | Village Church | II/P | 13 | Restored in 2015. |
| 1891 | 554 | Mühlhausen | St. Mary's Church | III/P | 61 | |
| 1891 | | Hötensleben-Barneberg | Church of Peace (Friedenskirche) | II/P | 19 | |
| 1891 | 557 | Jacobsdorf-Sieversdorf | Village Church | I/P | 6 | |
| 1893 | 554 | Berlin | Garrison Church | III/P | 70 | Then Berlin's largest church organ. Destroyed by a blaze in 1908. |
| 1893 | | Berlin | Immanuel Church | II/P | 29 | |
| 1894 | 620 | Apolda | Luther Church | III/P | 47 | |
| 1894 | | Saalfeld | St John's Church (Johanneskirche) | III/P | 49 | Baroque organ facade. Reconstruction 1932. Restored in 1996. |
| 1894 | | Bremen | Cathedral | III/P | 65 | Extended to IV/P/98 in 1926 and 1939. |
| 1895 | 661 | Gehren | St Michael's Church | II/P | 23 | |
| 1896 | | Potsdam | Pentecostal Church (Pfingstkirche) | II/P | 16 | Extended to II/P/28 in 1933. Dismantled in 2011. |
| 1897 | | Chorin-Golzow | Village Church | II/P | 15 | Reconstruction 1911. Restored in 1994 |
| 1898 | 731 | Wuppertal-Elberfeld | Cemetery Church | II/P | 30 | Partial renovation 1995 |
| 1898 | 755 | Moscow | Sts Peter and Paul Lutheran Cathedral | III/P | 33 | Built for the St. Michael Lutheran Church in Moscow, at present location since 2005. |
| 1903 | 891 | Bad Harzburg | Luther Church | III/P | 40 | Originally II/P/29, restored and extended by Christian Scheffler 1997–2001 |
| 1905 | 945 | Fulda | Heilig-Geist-Kirche (Church of the Holy Ghost) | II | 16 | 1990, restored to the original version of 1905 |
| 1906 | 981 | Neuzelle Abbey | St Mary's Church | II/P | 24 | Reconstruction by Christian Scheffler, 2001 |
| 1907 | | Kostebrau | | | | |
| 1908 | | Potsdam | St. Nicholas' Church | III/P | 49 | Destroyed by Soviet artillery fire in April 1945. |
| 1908 | | Bad Homburg | Church of the Redeemer | | | The sound of the "Fernwerk" appears in the above the altar. |
| 1909 | 1025 | Bad Salzungen | Stadtkirche Bad Salzungen | III | 41 | The organ was built according to the ideas of Max Reger, and restored from 1994 to 2000. |
| 1910 | | Jerusalem | Augusta Victoria Hospital | | | The Sauer foot blower is still operational. Unique in the Near East as of 2011. |