Walcker Orgelbau

Who was Walcker Orgelbau?

Walcker Orgelbau of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is a builder of pipe organs. It was founded in Cannstatt, a suburb of Stuttgart in 1780 by Johann Eberhard Walcker. His son Eberhard Friedrich Walcker moved the business to Ludwigsburg in 1820.

Walcker first became famous for the organ it built in the Paulskirche, Frankfurt, in 1833, which had 74 stops. Other important commissions followed rapidly.

Known for distinguished installations and low output, the company built the organ in the Boston Music Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, Zagreb Cathedral in Zagreb, Croatia, and Riga Cathedral in Riga, Latvia. The Boston instrument is now at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Methuen, MA.

The largest Walcker organ in the world had 200 stops and over ten thousand pipes. It was built in 1930s for a state congress hall in Nuremberg and was destroyed by aerial bombings during World War II.