In the Wehrer St. Martin’s Church, two instruments attract organists.
Inquiries followed refusals, acceptances followed withdrawals or postponements. It didn’t really work out in times of the corona pandemic with organ concerts in the Sankt-Martins-Kirche in Wehr. It would have been so nice to occasionally listen to the wonderful sounds of proven and appointed organists in the Wehrer church – especially since the organ was chosen by the German state music councils as the instrument of the year 2021.
. The Sankt-Martins-Kirche has two particularly filigree and beautiful sounding instruments. The Winterhalter organ with its baroque case is in the choir room, the Metzler organ on the gallery. Both have different origins and, due to the different sizes, manuals and number of pipes, also corresponding sound effects.
Thanks to patrons, the parish of Sankt Martin was able to pay for the instruments largely without long-term loans or debts. The choir organ was built in 1991 in the era of Gerhard Balles (pastor from 1979 to 1999), the main organ in that of pastor Matthias Kirner (since 2000). The Swiss brand towers majestically above the church gallery with a French-romantic sound, conscious of its image of being the “queen of instruments”. Anyone who has been able to get to know the Metzler organ so far will only find admiration. Students from the Freiburg University of Music have already been guests, as have organists from Holland on excursions to the Black Forest and Switzerland.
The organ inspector of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, Professor Bernhard Marx, gave concerts on Dreikönig in Wehr on a regular basis. Many other organists showed their skills on it. Everyone wanted to get to know and use the advantages of the instrument in order to have the promised listening pleasure. And once Corona is over, the inquiries will certainly increase again.
First organ in Wehr was not a masterpiece
It is not uninteresting to briefly go into the organ history of Sankt Martin: Werner Kiefer, “organ freak” and long-time chairman of the church choir, tried to fathom the history of the Wehrer organs for the 50th anniversary of the choir. He found out that exactly 240 years ago, in 1781, the first organ was delivered to Wehr. It was not a masterpiece, often had to be repaired, but still held up sturdy for 90 years. At the auction of the organ in 1871, the diaspora community Höllstein was supposed to raise 180 guilders, which would correspond to a current value of 1,800 euros. But she couldn’t pay for everything, so Wehrer citizens collected the difference.
In 1861 pastor Alois Bauer, aware that he would soon need a new organ, addressed a letter to the Wehrer mayor asking the community to set up an organ building fund. It finally did so in 1865. The money flowed in abundantly, but was then used for other communal matters. When in 1868 the parish wanted to call up the funds from the fund for a new organ, there were too few funds.
The community wanted to secure the remaining financing with an extraordinary chop of wood, but the Grand Ducal District Office in Schopfheim refused. In general, Schopfheim brought the whole organ project to failure. It was argued that the purchase of the organ was a matter for the parish community and not for the political military community. In 1871, Sankt Martin finally got the organ, and in 1936 the next one. The instrument lasted until 2006. After that, it was professionally dismantled and rebuilt in St. Joseph’s Church in Auschwitz, where it can still be heard today.
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