Pipe Organ Database

Note from the Organ Database Builders Listing editor Stephen Hall, April 22, 2017. -

It is not clear that Hann-Wangerin was an organbuilding firm. Joseph Hann was an architect and Adolph Wangerin was a furniture maker specializing in church furnishings. Neither seems to have had prior training in organbuilding. The Database contains only one organ listed as Hann-Wangerin, (Organ ID 540, St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin), and it lacks the original nameplate.

In 1903, organbuilder George Weickhardt joined the firm, and it becomes Hann-Wangerin-Weickhardt Co. From that point onward, it was definitely an organbuilding firm. Interestingly, the name plate on the Wangerin-Weickhardt organ at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Freeport, Minnesota (Organ ID 41654) reads "The Weickhardt organ built by Wangerin-Weickhardt Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin" indicating that the organs were considered to be by Weickhardt even though the company name is Wangerin-Weickhardt. By the time of Weickhardt's death in 1919, Wangerin was sufficiently knowledgeable to continue the company on his own, although Philipp Wirsching was hired as head voicer at that point.

Source:

• David Bohn and Marilyn Stulken, "The Wangerin Organ Company and Its Predecessors: Milwaukee Organbuilders", The Tracker 34:2 (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1990), 22-24.

Note from the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1991). Edited for the revised OHS Online Database website, 2017. -

Partnership of Joseph Hann and Adolph Wangerin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1900; succeeded by Hann-Wangerin-Weickhardt Co., 1903.

Staff: Paul J. Kuechle.

Source:

• Local directories of the period.
•