Aachen, St. Foillan

The organ was built in 1913 as Opus 502 by the Bonn Organ Workshop Klais for the Provost Church of Kornelimünster. The historic organ case was taken over by Johann Theodor Gilmann in 1763. The designs for this case came from the well-known Aachen based architect Johann Josef Couven.

In 1963, the organ’s interior moved to St. Nikolaus (today City Church), but the historic Gilmann housing remained in Kornelimünster.

Leaving the historic case work behind made it necessary to build a new housing at St. Nicholas. An initially only provisionally intended casework made of chipboard was decorated in 1965 by the Cologne painter Franz Pauli with representations of the 150th psalm. On the far left outside depicted is the former cathedral master builder Dr. Ing. Leo Hugot as he had initiated the implementation of the project.

In recent years, the organ was hardly used. On the one hand, it was in great need of repair and, on the other hand, the re-consecration of the Church of St. Nicholas to the “city church” changed the focus of use in the parish. The church of St. Foillan belonging to the same community of St. Fanziska in Aachen considered transferring the organ to St. Foillan. It is the second oldest organ in Aachen, has a fully pneumatic action and is considered a special monument of late romanticism. On 2 manuals and pedal it combines 31 sounding stops.

The organ was significantly affected during the New Year’s Eve fire 2010/2011. Due to the fire damage we received the order to carry out the urgently needed restoration work. The severity of the damage made it necessary that the work had to be carried out in the workshop in Hellenthal. Though for this reason, the plans of the parish could be realised much earlier as originially thought.