Warranty extension: 5-year warranty on new setters - for all WAGO components
Go to homepage

The Cirty of Lich and its organ building tradition

The town of Lich can boast a tradition that is unique in Germany. Pipe organs have been built here for over 400 years. The profession of ‘organ builder’ has survived all the storms of time and enjoys a high reputation. Today, as 400 years ago, the organ builders in Lich bear witness to their artistry and mastery. Individual works of art require creative forces in each individual case, taking into account historical knowledge and personal experience.

Marienstiftskirche (St. Mary´s Church)

original pedal towers from 1607

In our region, the organ can be traced back to the 13th century. There must have already been an organ in Wetzlar Cathedral at that time, as a commemorative document from 5 October 1279 reads: ‘Egidii, Elyzabeth: que scilicet festa predicta statuimus in ecclesia nostra organis et canticis sollempniter celebranda. . .’ In Lich, Jörg Wagner worked as organist at the collegiate church from 1590, as scholaster from 1575 and as dean (decano) from 1593. His term of office as dean lasted 37 years and we can still find his gravestone in the collegiate church today.

Over a period of around 100 years, three generations of the Wagners' workshop built organs of the highest quality, which were known and appreciated far beyond the borders of Lich. Jörg (Jorge) Wagner probably ran an organ building workshop in Lich as early as the second half of the 16th century, and his son Georg Wagner is documented to have built numerous organs, of which the organs in Butzbach (1614, case and front pipes preserved), Rodenbach (1621, case, windchest and large parts of the pipework including front pipes preserved) and Lich, Marienstiftskirche (1621-1624, case, front pipes and 4 further stops preserved) still bear impressive witness today. Two large and representative instruments from Georg Wagner's workshop unfortunately no longer exist today, namely the three-manual organ built in 1626 for the famous Elisabethkirche in Marburg and the organ probably built around 1607 for the monastery church in Arnsburg, of which the two pedal towers in the Marienstiftskirche in Lich have survived. Georg Wagner's son Georg Henrich preserved the organ in Büßfeld, which was originally built in 1651 for Homberg/Ohm and which still has its original bellows.

At the time, organ builders belonged to the ‘upper middle classes’ and came from respected families. Arnold Rucker, for example, the organ builder from Seligenstadt, whom Dürer drew on his journey to the Netherlands, had lawyers and professors as relatives who were in the service of the Bishop of Mainz. The relatives of the Wagner family of organ builders were also canons, rectors, priests and count's rentmasters in the castle.
The second flowering of organ building in Lich began when Johann Georg Förster opened an organ building workshop in 1842. According to an old chronicle: At the age of 14, he helped to repair the organ in the Marienstiftskirche in Lich, which at the time was being carried out by the organ builder Bernhard from Romrod. After completing this work, he joined his uncle, the master carpenter Alexander Schneider in Steinbach, as an apprentice. After this apprenticeship, he went to Romrod to organ builder Bernhard to become an organ builder. Father Frank in Lich was very helpful to him in his progress, as he recognised that he could become something. He later worked for the highly respected organ builders Bürgy in Giessen and Dreymann in Mainz before finally setting up his own business in Lich in 1842. After a fulfilling and successful working life and numerous new organ buildings in Upper Hessia, he died on 28 December 1902 at the age of 84.

Foerster & Nicolaus Organ Builders

Today's company headquarters in Lich

Otto Heuss

Photo 1950

Georg Förster's marriage to Elisabeth Krämer, the daughter of the organ builder Krämer from Leusel, produced a daughter, Luise Förster. She married Karl Nicolaus, born on 9 November 1860 in Steinbach. Karl Nicolaus had already been working as a journeyman in the company for several years and later became a partner. In 1900, Karl Nicolaus took over the company and built organs in Hessia, Thuringia and Lower Franconia. Karl Nicolaus' sons, Karl and Ernst, learnt organ building in their father's company. Following an old custom, they then travelled abroad to train with masters in Augsburg, the Rhineland and France. They joined the company in 1923. However, their son Karl died in 1924 at the age of 34, so that a successor had to be found for the technical area and the workshop management. The organ builder Otto Heuss was chosen from several applicants for this position. He began his work in Lich in 1928.
Unfortunately, the years from 1928 onwards were very difficult for organ building. The post-war period and the global economic crisis also paralysed organ building; hardly any new instruments were built, people simply had other things to worry about. So what to do? Master organ builder Ernst Nicolaus, now more the owner of Förster & Nicolaus, travelled the country with his foreman Otto Heuss to look for possible work. Here they were helped by a fundamental new development that was still lacking everywhere: the electric blower motor as a replacement for the sometimes unreliable calcantes (bellows pedal). The following incident documents the dramatic circumstances surrounding this development at the time: the organ in the Marienstiftskirche was once again in need of repair. The pneumatic action at the time was so decrepit that an improvement could only be achieved by installing an electric control system. Some tonal changes were also made and a new windchest was installed for the pedal. This new pedal windchest was the work of the young organ builder Otto Josef Heuss (son of Otto Heuss). 
Those in power in Germany at the time, especially in the lower ranks, were very eager, because ‘wheels had to roll for victory’. The old organ builder and his apprentice rolled the journeyman's piece and other organ parts on a simple two-wheeled cart from the workshop in what was then Butzbacher Straße to the Marienstiftskirche.

The frequently travelled route to the church led through Kirchgasse past a craftsman who kept a precise record of when and how often the old organ builder passed by with his apprentice. It was not long before the local group leader banned him from working. Nevertheless, the apprentice Otto Josef Heuss was able to successfully pass his journeyman's examination in 1944. A brief upswing in the mid-1930s made it possible to build new organs, but then the Second World War began. The organ building company Förster & Nicolaus had to build tables and chairs for Wehrmacht barracks and later ammunition boxes. However, in order not to jeopardise the organ building apprenticeship, a special arrangement was made. The oldest organ builder in the company, Anton Weinrich, who was already approaching 70, was allowed to continue training the youngest apprentice, Otto Josef Heuss. However, the end of the Second World War did not put an end to hardship and misery. The valuable materials were used up, machines and tools were obsolete. Added to this was the human tragedy that a whole generation of organ builders had been killed or so badly wounded that they could no longer practise their beloved profession. 
The company owner, Ernst Nicolaus, had survived the terrible war with his foreman Otto Heuss. Unbroken enthusiasm for the cause helped to overcome the worst problems. Organ builders came together again and new tasks opened up new perspectives. After years of hardship, initial shortcomings were accepted, conditions that the younger generation thankfully only knew from hearsay. The modest prosperity that gradually re-established itself and the marvellous achievement of reconstruction also included churches. Music at church services was once again honoured and the first orders for new organs were received - things were looking up again! In March 1949, we could speak of a workforce again: The ‘youngest’ apprentice, Otto Josef Heuss, came home from almost five years as a Russian prisoner of war. The following years can be described as particularly fortunate, as the artistic ambitions of the company largely went hand in hand with the organ building ideologies after the Second World War. The particular return to the principles of baroque organ building was also supported by the organists through Professor Helmut Walcha. Walcha, who worked in Frankfurt, had grown up in Saxony and had experienced the baroque flair very personally. The sound world of the organ builder Silbermann in particular became the new guiding principle.

Copperplate engraving "Licha"

from about 1655