Company type | GmbH, Kommanditgesellschaft |
---|---|
Industry | Pipe organ design and building. Pipe organ restoration |
Founded | 1882 |
Headquarters | Kölnstraße 148 • D 53111 Bonn, Germany |
Key people | Hans Gerd Klais, Philipp Klais |
Products | Pipe organs |
Number of employees | 64 (2006) |
Website | klais |
Orgelbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has completed many large-scale building and restoration projects around the globe in more than a century of organ building. [1]
Johannes Klais studied organ building in Alsace, Switzerland and Southern Germany. He founded his own organ building workshop in Bonn in 1882. His way of building organs was closely bound up with traditional construction methods using slider windchests. But as early as before the turn of the century he built high pressure stops with two mouths on pneumatic cone valve chests. In 1906, together with his son Hans, he introduced electric action. Hans Klais took over in 1925. In his time facade design began to come under the influence of the modern age, ergonomic console designs were also being developed. Hans Gerd Klais, the founder's grandson, took charge in 1965. Philipp Klais, the great-grandson of the founder, studied organ building in Alsace, France; in Germany; and overseas. He now runs the company.
Here is a short list naming a few of the Klais instruments around the world:
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