80 Karol Czajka-Giełdon, Krystyna Kirschke
the instrument
10
. The bid for the work was submitted by
two students from the Electromechanical Faculty, Edward
Popiel and Marian Śliwiński. The cost estimate included:
a full cleaning of the organ and pipes, setting up the con-
necting pipes, gluing together some of the wind chests for
the pedal voices, repairing the punctured front pipes, turn-
ing on the “Vox humana” voice, tuning the 28 voices, clean-
ing the organ console, keyboard and inspecting the motor.
The entire work was expected to cost 35,000 PLN. The
missing pipes were to be made at the University’s expense.
In December, Vice-Rector Kazi mierz Zipser contacted the
Central Executive Committee of the Polish Socialist Party
asking for funding to repair the organ
11
. The repair process
ended on 22 March 1948 with the acceptance of the com-
pleted work
12
. It is important to mention that there was also
another political theme emerging here, which increased the
chances of a rapid renovation of the organ. On 25–28 Au-
gust 1948, an extremely spectacular event was to take place
– the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace
(Fig. 4a), which was ultimately attended by 400 delegates
from 46 countries. It was part of an exhibition presenting
the achievements of the reconstruction of the Recovered
Territories after the Second World War, which was sched-
uled to be hosted from 21 July to 31 October 1948. The cost
of this gigantic propaganda project was 715 million PLN
(Zwierz 2016).
The refurbished instrument was used for various univer-
sity events over the following years, as well as when the
auditorium was made available to external users as a con-
ference or concert hall (Historia jednego zdjęcia 2020)
(Fig. 4b, c). In the 1960s, for example, music classes were
still held here for students of High School II, located on
what is now Parkowa Street. In 1969, Professor Tadeusz
Porębski became the next Rector of the WUST, leading
the preparation and subsequent implementation of a reform
of the educational process and a change in the university’s
structure. His plans also included a renovation of the audito-
rium, tied with the idea to remodel the organ gallery, where
interpreter booths were proposed in place of the instrument.
The organ, which had been renovated 22 years earlier, was
declared redundant, and was dismantled and handed over
to the State Philharmonic in Wrocław (Fig. 4d).
13
It was ul-
timately relocated to the Church of St Mary Magdalene in
Wrocław.
10
Archiwum Politechniki Wrocławskiej, 1947, sign. 135.
11
The Vice-Chancellor justied his request by the fact that only
three days earlier, the proceedings of the 27
th
PSP Congress had taken
place in the hall. Archiwum Politechniki Wrocławskiej, 1947, sign. 122.
12
The commission consisted of pipe organ professor Julian Bi-
dziński (in 1946–1970, director of the Wrocław music school, then
named after Fryderyk Chopin), Dionizy Smoleński and Franciszek Pał-
ka. In their opinion, […] the works listed in the attached cost estimate
were executed expertly. On inspection, it was found: correct intonation
of all voices, clean tuning, the addition of missing voices was adjusted
to the disposition guidelines for organ construction. The entirety of the
repairs was done professionally and soundly (Archiwum Politechniki
Wrocławskiej, 1947, sign. 135, document no. 78).
13
This was based on a decision of the University’s Senate Taken on
20 March 1970. Cf. Brandt-Golecka, Burak and Januszewska (2005, 167,
footnote 66).
Outline of the history of the organ
in the Church of St Mary Magdalene,
the rebuilding of the church after
the Second World War and the relocation
of the organ from the auditorium of the WUST
Insofar as the Wrocław University and University of
Tech nology had a complex of buildings that had survived
the war from the very start, the state of preservation reli-
gious buildings in Wrocław was marked by heavy losses.
The new state regime, which was hostile to all religions,
nevertheless took great care of the oldest churches, treating
them as testimony to Silesia’s historical belonging to the
Piast dynasty. For these reasons, the reconstruction and res-
toration work also included the severely damaged medieval
Church of St Mary Magdalene. In May 1945, an explosion
tore apart its tower mass, causing part of the south tower and
the west gable to collapse, along with the gallery housing
its great organ, which was completely destroyed. Thanks
to the innovative methods used during the reconstruction,
the tower and gable were successfully reconstructed (albeit
without the tower domes) in 1952. Work on the interior con-
tinued for another ten years, during which the west gallery
was also rebuilt and given a spatial form close to the one
from the Middle Ages. The immense window in the gable
wall above the gallery was also restored (Broniewski 1952).
After the end of the war, the church remained under the
management of the Evangelical parish centred on the city’s
German citizens – services were held in the surviving sacris-
ty in the northern annex. In the 1960s, a Polish-Catholic par-
ish and cathedral were established in the now-rebuilt church.
There was no organ in the interior during the postwar
reconstruction period, a departure from a tradition (Seibt
1938; Kmita-Skarsgård 2013) that had continued since
the Middle Ages
14
, as an organ player of this church had
rst been mentioned already in 1380, and after the per-
manent takeover of by the Protestants, the town council
commissioned the construction of the great organ to Mi-
chael Hirschfeldt of Żary in the late 16
th
century. The work
was completed in 1602, and as early as 1634 a major re-
modelling project was carried out
15
. The following were
preserved: the location on the cantilevered gallery above
the pulpit and the case (Fig. 5a) that consisted of a Late
Renaissance main case (Hauptwerk) and the back positive
(Rückpositiv). The dismantling of the instrument and the
gallery in 1722 was preceded by the construction of a new
great organ, which was planned to be located in the western
gallery (called Burgerchor or Hellenfeldscher Chor). The
builder was Michael Röder from Berlin
16
. The design was
14
The year 1380 is seen as the boundary when an organist named
Gregor was rst mentioned, which attests to the existence of an organ. At
the end of the 16
th
century, the church sported a large organ and a small
organ (700 Jahre St. Maria Magdalena 1926).
15
Michael Hirschfeldt also referred to as Hirschfelder (154?–1602),
with the collaboration of Martin Scheuer, completed the construction of
this experimental organ in 1602. Despite improvements during the con-
struction phase, the technical solution was not successful and the organ
malfunctioned, and a decision was made to rebuild it fully in 1623.
16
Johann Michael Röder (late 17
th
century to the early 18
th
centu-
ry), was a pupil of eminent organ builder Arp Schnitger (1648–1719)
