Zacharias Hildebrandt

Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688 – 11 October 1757) was an organ builder, born in Münsterberg, Silesia. In 1714 his father, a cartwright master, apprenticed him to Gottfried Silbermann in Freiberg. In 1721 Hildebrandt finished his masterpiece, the organ of the Nikolaikirche Langhennersdorf. Afterwards he built an organ in Störmthal near Leipzig, where he got to know Johann Sebastian Bach, and from 1724 to 1726 the organ in Lengefeld. On this project, a dispute developed with Gottfried Silbermann, who treated him as a rival and sued him. The dispute was settled by an agreement in which Hildebrandt obliged himself to take over only orders rejected by Silbermann. Therefore he moved his work to the region near Leipzig and to Thuringia.

He constructed the following organs:

Place Manuals Stops Annotations
Langhennersdorf b. Freiberg
1722
II / Ped
21
Restored (1990-1996)
Störmthal b. Leipzig
1723
I / Ped
14
Restored (Eule 2008)
Hilbersdorf b. Freiberg
1724
I
5
Restored, now in Leipzig
Liebertwolkwitz b. Leipzig
1725
I / Ped
13
Destroyed (1813)
Lengefeld i. Erzgebirge
1726
II / Ped
22
Modified (1933)
Sangerhausen, Hl. Geist-Stift
1727
I
6
Not preserved
Sangerhausen, St. Jacobi
1728
II / Ped
27
Restored (1976-1978)
Pölsfeld b. Sangerhausen
1728
I / Ped
11(?)
Extended by Hildebrandt
Sotterhausen b. Sangerhausen
1730
I / Ped
9
Restored (2005)
Lindenau b. Leipzig
1732
I / Ped
10
Not preserved
Eutritzsch b. Leipzig
1736
I / Ped
10
Not preserved
Naumburg, St. Wenzel
1746
III / Ped
53
Restored (1993-2000)
Großwiederitzsch b. Leipzig
1748
I / Ped
10
Demolished (1902)
Hettstedt i. Südharz, St. Jacobi
1749
II / Ped
31
Only facade preserved
Goldbach b. Bischofswerda
1756
I / Ped
10
Modified (1908)
Dresden, Dreikönigskirche
1757
II / Ped
38
Destroyed (1945)

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