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)