2010-04-15/2019-05-07 - From Organ Database Builders editor Stephen Hall, May 7, 2019. — German organ building firm, also known as E.F. Walcker & Cie, Established by Johann Eberhard Walcker in Cannstatt, in 1786. His son Eberhard Friedrich Walcker (1794 - 1872) took over the business begun by his father and in 1820 settled in Ludwigsburg. The Boston Music Hall organ (now in Methune Music Hall) was built by him. Several organ builders served apprenticeships in the Walcker factory during this time, including August Laukhuff, Gerard Kuhn, Wilhelm Sauer, and Jürgen Andreas Marcussen. The noted French organ builder Aristide Cavallie-Col1 and E. F. Walcker shared a close professional relationship. After the death of E. F. Walcker in 1872, the firm was managed by his sons Heinrich, Fritz, Paul and Karl Walcker. They were responsible for many important instruments, including organs for the Philadelphia Exposition (1876 - 18 registers) and the Cathedral of Riga (1883) 124 registers). At the beginning of the twentieth century, Oscar Walcker, son of Fritz Walcker, took over the family business. One of his first important instruments was an organ designed in collaboration with Max Reger in the Odeon Hall in Munich (1906 - 62 registers). Oscar Walcker also established an intimate exchange of ideas with the new Alsatian Organ Reform Movement headed by Dr. Albert Schweitzer. The Walcker firm built the first organ embodying the reform principles of the movement for St. Reinoldi's Church in Dortmund (1909 - 105 registers). In 1921, acting on a suggestion from Willibald Gurlitt, Oscar Walcker built a "Praetorius Organ" for the Institute of Music of the University of Freiburg. It emphasized a specification more suited for polyphonic music as had been common in the time of Praetorius and Bach. Oscar Walcker died in 1948, the task of carrying on the tradition as well as rebuilding the business after the Second World War fell to his grandson Werner Walcker-Mayer. He had served his apprenticeship under the direction of Karl Ruther, manager of the W. Sauer company. Under the leadership of Werner Walcker-Mayer, the firm has produced over 3000 instruments, bringing the total number of organs built by the Walcker workshops to nearly 6000. Source: Walcker Orgel English language website, accessed May 7, 2019, https://www.walcker.com/texte/english/walcker-organs--a-brief-history.html.
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