Matthias Schuke (born 7 July 1955) is a German

organ builder Organ building is the profession of designing, building, restoring and maintaining pipe organs. The organ builder usually receives a commission to design an organ with a particular disposition of stops, manuals, and actions, creates a desig ...

Career

Born in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, Schuke is the son of the organ builder

Hans-Joachim Schuke Hans-Joachim Schuke (7 January 1908 – 20 July 1979) was a German organ builder. He was the son of the organ builder Alexander Schuke and ran his father's company, the "Alexander Schuke Orgelbauanstalt Potsdam", today the company, weiter. Life ...

. He attended the "Polytechnische Oberschule 24", now the Eisenhardtschule Potsdam, from 1962 and graduated with a high school diploma. From September 1972 to June 1974, he trained as a cabinetmaker at the Richard Praetsch carpentry workshop in

Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The neighbourhood is named after a small hill on the Havel river. It is the location of Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palaces and Park ...

. In 1974, he began training as an organ builder in the "

Volkseigener Betrieb The Publicly Owned Enterprise (; abbreviated VEB) was the main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany. These state-owned enterprise were all publicly owned and were formed after mass nationalisation between 1945 and the early 1960s, ...

" Potsdamer Schuke Orgelbau, went through the wood workshop, tin workshop, restoration and voicing departments and completed his training in 1977. During this time, Matthias Schuke also completed his Abitur at evening school. From 1977 to 1985 he worked mainly in the field and in voicing. In 1985, he began his training as a master organ builder. In 1988 he passed the master craftsman's examination. His masterpiece, a 4-register chest organ, stands today in the Erlöserkirche Potsdam. In 1990, Schuke managed to successfully reprivatise the company in the course of the political and economic

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

. and has since been the owner and managing director of In 1998, he was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in his capacity as a committed personality in German organ building. In 2001, his company achieved 1st place in the Technology Transfer Prize of the Technology Foundation of the State of Brandenburg, together with the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany. The university is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace o ...

. In addition, the company received the Professor Adalbert Seifriz Prize 2001, a nationwide craft prize from the Steinbeis Foundation in Stuttgart with Reimund Gerhard, University of Potsdam. In 2003, Schuke decided to leave the old, too small workshop premises in the centre of Potsdam and to build a new company headquarters in

Werder (Havel) Werder (Havel) (; official name derived from ''Werder an der Havel'' ("Werder upon Havel"), colloquially just ''Werder'') is a town in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Havel river in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, west of the st ...

. In February 2004, the company moved into the new workshop premises. At the end of November 2017, he announced that he would gradually hand over the company to his sons Johannes (born 1985) and Michael (born 1989). The sons joined the company management in 2018. During his time as managing director, Matthias Schuke and his company were able to realise major projects in the

Erfurt Cathedral Erfurt Cathedral (, officially ''Hohe Domkirche St. Marien zu Erfurt'', English: Cathedral Church of St Mary at Erfurt), also known as St Mary's Cathedral, is the largest and oldest church building in the Thuringian city of Erfurt, ...

, the

Zamora, Michoacán Zamora de Hidalgo () is a city in the States of Mexico, Mexican state of Michoacán. The 2010 census population was 141,627. making it the third largest city in the state. The city is the municipal seat of Zamora Municipality, Michoacán, Zamora M ...

, in the

Magdeburg Cathedral Magdeburg Cathedral (), officially called the Cathedral of Saints Maurice and Catherine (), is a Protestant Church in Germany, Lutheran cathedral in Germany and the oldest Gothic architecture, Gothic cathedral in the country. It is the proto-cat ...

and in the

Königsberg Cathedral Königsberg Cathedral (; ) is a Brick Gothic-style monument in Kaliningrad, Russia, located on Kneiphof island in the Pregolya river. It is the most significant preserved building of the former city of Königsberg, which was largely destroyed in ...

.E. Neumann-Redlin von Meding, M. Schuke: Schuke organ in the "Königsberg Cathedral" modelled on the Mosengel organ of 1721, in ''Königsberger Bürgerbrief'' No. 71 (2008), Also worth mentioning are the restorations he carried out on historically valuable organs, e.g. the organs of

St. Stephen's Church, Tangermünde St. Stephen's Church is a Lutheranism, Lutheran church in Tangermünde, Saxony-Anhalt, constructed in the Brick Gothic style typical of North Germany. History The predecessor of the present church was a Romanesque architecture, Romanesque brick ...

as well as of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral and of the .

References

External links

Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau GmbH

catalogue raisonné A (or critical catalogue) is an annotated listing of the works of an artist or group of artists and can contain all works or a selection of works categorised by different parameters such as medium or period. A ''catalogue raisonné'' is normal ...

. (Memento 23 April 2004 im Internet Archive) The list contains all new constructions, alterations and repairs by Matthias Schuke, with details of the stops, manuals and pedals. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schuke, Matthias German pipe organ builders Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1955 births Living people People from Potsdam

Career

References

Further reading

External links