By 1842, the restoration of the church—burned down twenty-two years earlier after being struck by lightning—had progressed to the point where a new organ could be installed. It was built in Germany, in Ludwigsburg, in the workshop of Eberhard Friedrich Walcker. The Walcker
workshop, founded only a couple of decades earlier, had already gained recognition in Germany and, supported by strong demand, had grown into a full-scale factory. Walcker entered the Russian market in 1839 with a powerful organ built for St. Peter’s Church in St. Petersburg.
The order for a new organ for Tallinn’s main church—St. Olaf’s—by the same master was entirely logical. It should be noted that there was in fact no organ builder in the region capable of constructing an organ of the required size. The organ, completed in 1842, had a mechanical action system and 65 stops, three manuals, and two pedal divisions. It was the largest organ ever built in Estonia and remained the largest until 1914, when the rebuilt organ of Tallinn Cathedral was completed.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, technical innovations in organ building spread rapidly, and the economic prosperity before World War I allowed them to be implemented in Estonia as well. One after another, the organs of Tallinn’s major churches were rebuilt with pneumatic action. In St. Olaf’s Church, this modernization was undertaken last, only in the spring of 1914, after long insistence by the organist Weÿrich. The detailed reconstruction plan was drawn up by Dr. Wissig, organist of St. Peter’s Church in St. Petersburg, with the guiding principle of preserving the instrument’s tonal character. Of the planned 76 stops, 59 of the old stops were intended to remain in use. However, although this was the plan, reality turned out differently.
At the consecration service of the organ, which took place only on 18 December 1926, the hymn
sheet contained the following note:
“Our old organ’s reconstruction and expansion was commissioned in December 1913, and the
organ was to be completed and installed in September 1914. War and revolution disrupted
everything, and the capital collected became completely worthless. Only in 1924 did the church
council decide to launch a new fundraising campaign to continue the organ construction, and on
4 January 1926 a new contract was signed with the firm E. F. Walcker of Ludwigsburg. Given
the difficult financial situation of our congregation, the installation of the organ was planned in
several stages. Today, the first and largest stage stands completed before us. The console, with
all necessary mechanisms and coupler devices, is fully installed and meets modern technical
requirements. The disposition, in which part of the usable old pipework has been retained, is as
follows: (see disposition).”
Thus, although the organ console bears the year 1914 as its completion date and reflects the rich disposition planned at that time, the organ in its present form was only completed in 1926. Of the planned 76 stops, only 37 were ultimately built, and the entire pipework of the first manual is missing. The final completion of the organ was hindered by several problems. In the attached disposition, the completed stops are printed in darker type.
The neo-Gothic organ case dating from 1842 was reinstalled only after 1950. The facade pipes are made of cardboard and covered with silver foil. Archival research in recent years has shown that the St. Olaf’s organ is a unique monument in the history of Estonian organ building, serving as a model and source of inspiration for local organ builders after 1842.
Toomas Mäeväli