A few days ago, Fritz Gellerman made the following request on the Automatic
Music list:

> Subject: Bruder organs
>
> Bob Conant: Do you know if anyone has an opus list for Wilhelm Bruder Sohne
> organs? My barrel organ has serial number 1575, and I would like to find the
> date of manufacture at least--other information if available.
>
> Fritz Gellerman

Here is what I have been able to find out so far. As an owner of a WBS
fairground organ, I have been interested in discovering any background on
them that I can find. I will start by saying that I have NOT found an opus
list, indicating serial numbers, dates of manufacture, customers shipped to,
etc. At least not yet. Wilhelm Bruder Sohne organs were built in Waldkirch,
Germany from the mid 1800's to the start of WWII (about 1939). After the war,
the company did not continue because the older principles were elderly and
the younger ones were killed in the war. Waldkirch was the home of not only
Wilhelm Bruder Sohne organs but also: Gebruder Bruder, Alfred Bruder, Ignaz
Bruder, A. Ruth and Sohne, Gebruder Weber, the Waldkirch branch of Gavioli et
Cie (managed by Richard Bruder) and the Waldkirch branch of Limonaire (also
managed by Richard Bruder). (Richard was considered the "black sheep" of the
family by the other family members.)  There were also several church organ
factories in the village as well as many component subcontractors such as
Josef Dopp who carved facades for WBS, Gebruder, Ruth and several others.
Waldkirch is located in the heart of the Black Forest and was not
significantly damaged by the war so there are many records that do still
exist there. There is a local historical museum which has collected much of
the history of the town and the organ industry there and is the repository of
many old company records. However, nothing that I can find is yet published
on Wilhelm Bruder Sohne regarding production details.

What I have found is as follows: There are two books published by the
Waldkirch Museum. The first is "Waldkircher Orgelbauer" which tells much of
the history of the various organ builders in the town. It includes such local
stories as the one about one of the church organ builders who put out a
contract to murder one of the other church organ builders in order to get a
contract. The second book is "Waldkircher Dreh- und Jahrmarkt- Orgeln" which
is more of a technical book about how the street and fair organs are
constructed and operate. Both books have sections on Wilhelm Bruder Sohne and
the first one gives a few sample production figures but they are far from
complete. Both books are written in German.

Another source of information is the pages of "Het Pierrement", the quarterly
publication of Kring Van Draiiorgelvrienden (Circle of friends of the street
organ) published in the Netherlands and printed in Dutch. The April, 1987
issue has a large number of factory WBS photos printed in large format (black
and white of course). The July 1994 issue has a nice article about the
history of the WBS company (but no production information, drat).

As an aside, the January, April and July, 1993 issues of Het Pierrement has a
massive three part article on Ruth organs complete with production figures,
etc. Did you know that in the entire history of the company, Ruth built a
TOTAL of 288 book organs ? I would think that the WBS total would be somewhat
less than that.

I have also communicated with several individuals who have take a  special
interest in WBS organs but none of them have been able to amass any
productions information that I know of. Two that come quickly to mind are
Fred Dahlinger of Baraboo, WI, and Reg Turlington of the UK. Reg started at
one time to keep track of existing WBS organs but he is currently in poor
health and I am not sure that he was able to formally document what he had
found out.

I am preparing to write to Wolfgang Brommer of Waldkirch. We talked briefly
at the MBSI meeting in Orlando and he indicated that he does have some
production  information on WBS organs. Of course he did not have it with him
but he promised to look up what he does have and let us have a look at it.

This diatribe ended up being longer than I intended, particularly in light of
its scant useful content. I have been collecting information on German organs
for about 10 years and you can see how little there is to show for it. Jody,
feel free to edit this down or out as you see fit.

Bob Conant¶
Endicott, NY