Its sound design, which was geared towards modern concert life, its acoustic symbiosis with the hall and its visual “unobtrusiveness” made it an admired “miracle organ”. Since the inaugural concert with the Leipzig Thomasorganist Günther Ramin as part of the opening of the Hans-Sachs-Haus in Gelsenkirchen on October 15 and 16, 1927, the Walcker organ was regularly part of the city's concert life.
During World War II, the instrument was dismantled and safeguarded by the builder, and then re-installed after the end of the war.
Due to new fire protection regulations, serious changes were made in 1975 to the structure of the building and the concert hall was converted into a multipurpose hall. The Walcker organ's Fernwerk in the attic was removed. Increasingly serious technical defects in the instrument gradually made its fundamental renovation necessary. Initiated by Karl-Heinz Obernier, who was custodian of the Gelsenkirchen Walcker organ for many years, the work was carried out by the builder company in the 1980s under the direction of the Westphalian Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments. Electric slider chests replaced the worn-out electropneumatic downstream chests.
Due to the renovation of the entire building complex starting in 2002 and the associated planned restoration of the hall to its original state, the organ was first dismantled in 2001 and then stored by the Walcker company for the purpose of returning it to its original state. However, in 2008, in the middle of the construction work, a newly developed concept for the use of the Hans-Sachs-Haus was presented and accepted. This no longer included the return of the Walcker organ to the hall. The reopening of the Hans-Sachs-Haus took place in 2013 without its former “miracle organ”.
After the liquidation of the company E. F. Walcker & Cie. in 2003, the organ-building workshop Romanus Seifert & Sohn from Kevelaer took over the project and restored the organ between 2003 and 2007. It was only in May 2017 that the decision was made to translocate the organ to St. Anthony's Church in Papenburg. In March 2018, the architectural office Ulrich Königs (Cologne) was awarded the contract for the design of the organ front. Installation on site began in September 2019. The organ was consecrated on September 11, 2020.
At its new location in Papenburg, the organ can now be heard again in its original form. The remote organ, reconstructed in 2005 according to the original plans and supplemented by a second manual with three voices and a combined sub/gedackt bass row, was installed as a choir organ in the right transept.
From the very beginning of the voicing in St. Anthony's Church, it became clear that, thanks to the chosen housing solution, the individual registers, both solo and in harmony, harmonized perfectly with the room acoustics, right up to a symphonic saturation of sound. The contemporary, pipe-less façade and the U-shaped arrangement of the pipes are reminiscent of the original location. Specially shaped and colored lamellae (medium-density fiber elements made of rice husks) for the front of the organ guide the sound of the organ perfectly into the nave. The neutral color scheme of the organ case blends discreetly into the sacred space with its reddish-brown brick interior.
Dr. Thomas Lipski