German Lutheran Church

From SOJ August/September 1979, Spring 2002:

Details of the first organ are not known but it is thought that the instrument now residing in St Stephen's Church, Mittagong (Walcker, 1861) may have originally been here before being moved to All Saint's, Singleton in 1868, then to St Peter's, Hamilton in 1890 and then to Mittagong in 1971.

The second organ was built by the Sydney organbuilder, Charles Richardson, and was completed in 1894. The opening recital was presented by Augustus Gehde on 28th February. Costing "rather more than £300", the organ consisted of two manuals, 11 stops, 4 couplers and mechanical action. It was contained in a case of kauri with ceder console fittings. Frederick Ladegast, son of the farmous German organbuilder Johann Frederick Ladegast, was working for Richardson at the time and helped with its construction. S.T.Noad made some tonal alterations to this instrument in 1968. This organ was removed in 1979, rebuilt and installed in St John's Anglican Church, Young, by Brown & Arkley.

A new organ was ordered from Karl Schuke, Berlin and was opened in 1980. The specification of this organ was drawn up by Prof. Dr Arno Schönstedt of Herford, Germany, together with David Rumsey from the Sydney Conservatorium. This organ has been used for many years as a teaching and practice instrument for students from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

From Organ Australia (Summer 2014-2015), p. 36, Peter Jewkes writes:

'Known as 'Goulburn Street Lutheran' to the many Conservatorium students for whom it served as a practice venue, the Martin Luther Kirche in Sydney has been home to three instruments since the construction of the very distinctive building in the 1860s. The present organ, by Karl Schuke of Germany, is a comparative newcomer, dating form 1980. Though extremely well made, constant use for 34 years coupled with the dust intrusion typical of a busy city location have meant that the Jewkes firm's recent cleaning and renovation work has come not too late.

This project has included cleaning and regulation of all pipework, replacement of several lost porcelain stop-knobs with their distinctive engraving (happily able to be re-sourced from their original makers with assistance from the Schuke firm), releathering of the organ's Schwimmer wind regulators (which in turn required removal of the main soundboards) and replacement of the leather pallet 'hangers' in the main soundboards, which had perished and become an irritating source of dumb notes in recent years. The opportunity was also taken to return the manaul keyboards to their original German suppliers to have the disctinctive ivory facings on their sharp keys (many of which were missing) replaced in legally sourced mammoth ivory from Siberia. The project was completed in early October.'