Wangerin Organ Company

The Wangerin Organ Company (1912-1942) was a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was a continuation of the company after the partnership of Adolph Wangerin and George J. Weickhardt, Wangerin-Weickhardt, ended with the death of Weickhardt in 1919.[1] It had previously also been known as the Hann-Wangerin-Weickhardt company.[2] Many of its organs are still played in churches today.

During the theater organ boom in the 1920s, when the Barton Organ Company of Oshkosh, Wisconsin could not keep up with the production demand, the Wangerin factory first loaned them factory space, and later was sub-contracted to build organs for them.[3]

During World War II, when manufacture of musical instruments was banned in 1942 in order to focus on the war effort,[4] the Wangerin-Weickhardt Company built wooden airplane parts and other war-related goods. The firm did not resume organ building after the war, so it effectively ceased operation as an organ builder in 1942.[5]

Some Wangerin organ locations

 
  Immanuel Lutheran Church LCMS (Spring Valley Township, McPherson County, Kansas).  A two-manual Himers organ purchased after it was removed from a former theater.

References
  1. Organ Historical Society. Organ Database: Wangerin Organ Company.
  2. David H. Fox,"Hann-Wangerin-Weickhardt", A Guide to North American Organbuilders (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1991), 147.
  3. David Junchen, Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, Vol. 2 (Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1989), 662.
  4. "War Production Board: General Limitation Order No. L-37 To Restrict the Production of Musical Instruments", United States Archives.
  5. The Tracker, 34:2 (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1990), 23.


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