Orgelbau Klais

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Johannes Klais Orgelbau GmbH & Co. KG
Image:Klaislogo.jpg
Type	Private, family owned
Founded	1882
Headquarters	Kölnstraße 148 • D 53111 Bonn, Germany
Key people	Hans Gerd Klais, Philipp Klais
Industry	Pipe organ design and building. Pipe organ restoration
Products	Pipe organs
Employees	64 (2006)
Website	Orgelbau Klais

Orgalbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has compleated many large-scale building and restoration projects around the globe in more than a century of organbuilding.

[edit] History of the company

Johannes Klais studied organ building in Alsace, Switzerland and Southern Germany. He founded his own organ building workshop in Bonn in 1882. His way of building organs was closely bound up with traditional construction methods using slider windchests. But as early as before the turn of the century he built high pressure stops with two mouths on pneumatic cone valve chests. In 1906, together with his son Hans, he introduced electric action. Hans Klais took over in 1925. In his time facade design began to come under the influence of the modern age, ergonomic console designs were also being developed. Hans Gerd Klais, the founder's grandson, took charge in 1965. Philipp Klais, the great-grandson of the founder, studied organ building in Alsace, France; in Germany; and overseas. He now runs the company together with his father.

[edit] A few Klais instruments around the world

The cathedral in Cologne, Germany: der Kölner Dom. The main instrument was finished in 1998 and although enormous, it is almost dwarfed inside the colossal gothic church as it clings to the balconies. Klais also restored other organs in the cathedral and added a detached console that operates all of them at once.