Tradition of organ building
The preservation of the spirit of the Saxon Silbermann school combined with the latest artistic and technical knowledge is characteristic of our organ building workshop.
When HERMANN EULE registered his business in Bautzen on January 26. 1872, several years of training at Leopold Kohl in Bautzen layed behind him. Migratory years led him i.a. to Balthasar Schlimbach in Würzburg, where he got to know the most modern form of windchests at the time, the mechanical cone chest, and built it from then on. His basic principle of the greatest possible solidarity soon got him a good reputation in Upper Lusatia, later throughout Saxony and Bohemia. Many of his works are preserved to this day. Tonally he followed the Contemporary Organ Romanticism, the sound of this organs is determined by wide scaled principals, melodious flutes and prominent strings. With the turn of the century he turned away from mechanical cone chests and has since built pneumatic membrane chests which function very precisely by its outflow principal.
Hermann Eule died in 1929 at the age of 83 years. His daughter JOHANNA EULE continued to run the company. The influences of the organ movement was also echoed in Bautzen. Thus, the first new slider chest organ of Saxony was built here in 1936 for the St. Paul´s cross church in Chemnitz (III/39). During this time the restoration work on significant historical organs, especially in Saxony and Thuringia, has begun.
1957 HANS EULE took over the management of the company. With high personal commitment he made the business flourish. He created 134 new organs, including the largest church organ built in the GDR in the cathedral of Zwickau. His work also extended beyond the borders, over to Sweden, in the former Soviet Union and in the Federal Republic of Germany.
After his early death in 1971 his wife and permanent employee INGEBORG EULE continued to manage the business. Even during the years of expropriation from 1972 to 1990 she ran the „publicy owned company“ forward-looking and farsighted, so that she was able to return it to family ownership almost undamaged in the summer of 1990. The CEO from 1987 to 2005 was master organ builder ARMIN ZUCKERRIEDEL. 231 new organs were built and 43 historcal instruments were restored from 1971 to 2005.
At the beginning of 2006, the management passed into younger hands. Since then, the CEOs have been ANNE-CHRISTIN EULE, granddaughter of Ingeborg Eule, trained organ builder and dilpoma business administrator, and, since April 2008, diploma economist JIŘÍ KOCOUREK. He held this office since April 2013. Since May 2013, JIŘÍ KOCOUREK has continued to assist the Eule company as an artistic advisor in a part-time employment relationship. Since 01 May 2013 master organ builder DIRK EULE, who has been with Eule Orgelbau for 20 years, has been appointed CEO. Master organ builder CHRISTOPH KUMPE works since 1978 for Eule and is active as technical director.
New construction and restoration are equally important to each other at Eule Orgelbau, whereby The knowledge gained from working with historical organs has a inspiring effect on the construction of new organs. The palette of sounds gets a welcome addition through the work with historical scales.
1872 - 1929 effective time of Hermann Eule
| 1861 | organ building training and journeyman years at Leopold Kohl in Bautzen |
| 1868 | migratory years, activity at Carl Voigt in Halberstadt and Balthasar Schlimbach in Würzburg |
| 1872 | founding of the organ building workshop Hermann Eule in Bautzen on 26 January ; until 1900 80 new mechanical cone chest organs were built (largest organ: Bautzen Maria-Martha-Church, 2 manuals, 38 registers). |
| 1900 | changeover to pneumatic mambrane chest organs |
| 1910 | largest organ during his effective time: Bautzen cathedral evang. part III/62 (pneumatic adjustable combination system); the organ has been preserved |
| 1929 | opus 173 |
1929 - 1957 effective time of Johanna Eule
| 1929 | daughter of Hermann Eule took over management of the company; a team of experienced employees and master craftsmen stand by her side; a contaporary changeover of the romantic sound image to the baroque or neo-baroque sound image follows |
| 1930 | the newly built organ in Döbeln, Nikolai church (III/57) is a interesting testimony from this epoch, the organ has been preserved unchanged and was overhauled by us in 2001 |
| 1933 | first organ restoration (Gottfried-Silbermann organ in Crostau) |
| 1936 | fisrt large new slider chest organ for the St. Paul´s Corss Church in Chemnitz, 3 manuals, 39 registers, electric tracker action |
| 1948 | largest organ during her effective time: Leipzig university church IV/80 (reconstruction) |
| 1953 | general transition to slider chest organs with mechanical tracker action; studies of arts of scaling of old masters and inclusion in new organ construction, also as the basis for the start of extensive organ restorations in accordance with monument conservation guidelines |
| 1957 | opus 300 |
1957 - 1971 effective time of Hans Eule
| 1959 | – master´s examination, after that increase to 40 employees
– increasing the efficiency of work organisation, so that an also extremely efficient production of individual pieces was achieved; this measure could keep prices at affordable levels; introduction of new materials that were expected to be more climate resistant; the new instruments created during his effective time have a neo-baroque sound statement throughout |
| 1961 | start of brisk export activity (Sweden, Soviet Union, Federal Republic of Germany); until his early death, 29 new organs were delivered to the FRG and assembled on site and voiced by his own employees |
| 1969 | largest organ during his effective time: Cathedral in Zwickau IV/77 |
| 1971 | opus 420 |
1971 - 2005 effective time of Ingeborg Eule
| 1971 | after death of her husband Ingeborg Eule took over management of the company, as in Johanna Eule’s time, she is supported by an experienced team of employees and master craftsmen. |
| 1971 | maintainance of the extensive export activity |
| 1972 | forced nationalisation of the enterprise located in the GDR (East Germany, Bautzen); in an effort to preserve the 100-year-old business, she continued to make herself available as CEO |
| 1976 | restorations according to monument conservation guidelines to an increasing extent; as a markstone it is important to name the restoration of the Trost-Orgel in der Schoßkirche Altenburg |
| 1988 | handover of the CEO position to the master organ builder Armin Zuckerriedel, who is active in the company since 1970 |
| 1990 | reprivatisation of the business, Ingeborg Eule is the owner again; retention of the company size of approx. 40 employees; In the following years, the company was enlarged and the machinery almost completely renewed.
increasingly, romantic epoch influences sound design of new organs; organ restorations of Ladegast, Walcker, Steinmeyer and from the own workshop are an indispensable treasure trove for this purpose; but also baroque organs weres still restorated, entirely in the sense of the builders; in the past years: organs by Gottfried Silbermann, Zacharias Hildebrandt, Heinrich Gottfried Trost, Tobias Schramm, Johann Gottlieb Tamitius, Johann Gottlob Trampeli, Johann Christian Kayser and more |
| 2000 | completion of the restoration begun in 1993 of the Zacharias Hildebrandt organ in Naumburg St. Wenzel, in the sense of the builder and the acceptance report of J. S. Bach und G. Silbermann dated 27 September 1746 |
| 2004 | largest organ during her effecitve time: Leipzig Nikolai´s church V/103 |
| 2005 | opus 637 |
since 2005 Dirk and Anne-Christin Eule
| 2003 | graduation, diploma in business administration (FH) |
| 2005 | takeover of the management of the business from Ingeborg Eule’s granddaughter (organ building training 1994 -1997) |
| 2006 | for restoration and expansion of the Walcker organ built in 1891 in the Saint Petersburg State Academic Capella, Russia, new cone chests are built for the first time in 106 years |
| 2007 | opus 654 is being built for the Mozarteum in Salzburg |
| 2008 | development of a new program system for the adjustalbe combination and tracker action controlling system „Organ System Eule“ (OSE) incooperaction with Professor Dr Christian Schulz of the university Mittweida |
| 2009 | completion of the new concert organ for the Mercatorhalle in Duisburg, the new program system (OSE) was installed for the first time |
| 2013 | master organ builder Dirk Eule takes over the management |
| Hermann Eule Orgelbau builds their first instrument for Norway, for the cathedral in Bodø | |
| 2014 | only rarely does an organ builder have the luck and the opportunity to plan and build a completely new organ project as large as the one for the Constantine Basilica in Trier. |
| 2017 | large concert organ for the Kulturpalast Dresden is inaugurated |
| 2018 | construction of an organ for the Abbey Church of St. Nicholas in Brauweiler near Cologne |
| 2020 | organ system with main organ, choir organ and Echo organ for the St. Jacob’s Catholic Church in Straubing si built |