The mental roots of the association go back into the year 1986. At that time the sacristan Karl Striebel on suggestion of curator Father Dominikus Kirchmair assigned the diocese music director professor Dr. Gert Voelkl with an expertise of the Batzenhofen organ.
The expert called the instrument regarding conception, construction, choice of materials, workmanship realization and sound completely insufficient. He referred to many malfunctions and closed with the words "because of the fundamental imperfections mentioned, you should not invest in the instrument any longer, but have your eyes on the investment in a new organ appropriate to the room".
Nevertheless with some overhaul and repairs the organ can be used until today, if also not always completely according to the desire of the organist. If at that time already a promotion association would have been founded, today probably a solid financial basis would be present, with which would allow a renewal.
Christmas 2005 the organ again had problems, what, in particular with winter cold weather, happens sporadically again and again. No miracle, because 2002 the official organ expert P. Stefan U. Kling OPraem came to the same result, as his colleague 16 years before: Also he advised in his appraisal against a general overhaul and recommended a renewal.
The Christmas organ malfunctions in 2005 were reason that for the first time by family Koehler donations for the organ were collected at the annual gluehwein party (warm spiced wine) taking place for several years already in the Frankenstreet. Further actions were the sale of videos about the holy land pilgrimage of the parish in the spring 2006, the sale of plants from seeds collected there and a further gluehwein party. Thus a financial basis of approx. 400 Euros could be collected and the thought came in mind to prepare the foundation of an official promotion association.
At the parish fair 2006 encouraged by further organ problems the first draft of the statutes was written, which already two weeks later was certified by the tax office Augsburg-Land to correspond to the fiscal regulations of the tax code.
Now it was time to go with the long-preserved idea into the public. The draft was discussed with the minister, and then introduced to the parish council and the church administration. Some smaller changes in the statutes had to be done. Finally minister Walser and all members of the two committees agreed to the foundation of the association.
On Friday 25 July 2008 16 persons followed the public invitation of Franz X. Kohler in the parish hall St. Martin Batzenhofen to the foundation meeting. 14 of them got founder members of the promotion association "Orgelfreunde St. Martin" (Organ Friends Saint Martin). The draft of the statutes was accepted without dissenting votes, membership dues were determined for standard members at 20 Euros and for promotion members at 60 Euros per year. After the entry of the founder members the statutes was signed and the executive committee was elected. Chairmen became Franz X. Koehler and Dr. Sabine Lutz, other members of the committee elected for five years got Dr. Renate Demharter, Ulrike Kohler, Maja May, Konrad Roessle and Stefan Schoeffel.
The first public occurrence of the new association happened with an information booth on the garden party of the music association Batzenhofen on Sunday 03 August. Here further 11 members could be won. Another public member advertisement happened at the holiday of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin after the service. On 16 August 2008 member 50 joined the association. On 08 Sept. the association became member of the GdO. The number of members had increased to over 60. The GdO, which is association of the organ friends, is an international umbrella organization for all, who are obliged to the organ.
By joining the GdO the organ friends were recognized by the city of Gersthofen officially as association and got an entry in the register of associations there. For the exchange of such news the executive committee meets every 2 months to an "Orgelstammtisch" (organ regulars' table). For the dates see our homepage. Guests are at any time cordially welcome.
Obviously there was a whole set of persons, who had waited only for the foundation of an organ association, because starting from at the end of August increasingly donations began to be received and this funds rain continues to today. Many thanks to all of our members and sponsors for this. At the first Christmas holiday we received the proceeds from the operators of the Gluehbude and forging booth as donation.
At the beginning of the new year a large publicity campaign was accomplished: From the Gersthofen directory the addresses of more than 600 households were determined, which belong to the parish Batzenhofen and were not members yet. They all received a personal writing, in which we informed about our association and asked for membership and donations. The membership count at the first annual general meeting in association's history on 13 March 2009 was 89, of it 61 from Batzenhofen, 8 from Edenbergen, 14 from Rettenbergen. Regarding to the numbers of inhabitants, in Batzenhofen 6.2%, in Edenbergen 2.7% and in Rettenbergen 3.1% of the inhabitants are members in our association. So it might be still potential for further members present. We rely on you! At the annual general meeting by the Kath. Woman's Association a very generous donation was presented, which consisted of incomes of the hourly kindergarten and the Advent bazaar 2008.
In order to give to the members and sponsors of the association a criteria about the progress of the project, in July 2009 in the entrance of the parish church St."Martin an "Organ-Donation-Barometer" was installed: If the reading reaches the upper end, the chances are well to begin with the renewal of the instrument.
At the beginning of October the "sound barrier" was broken through: Father Hutt joined the association as member 100. As welcome gift he got the first bottle of "Cecilia Wine", which the association let bottle in limited edition with special label and offers in favor of the organ renewal.
At the annual general meeting (AGM) on 22 January 2010 the membership was 105, of it 67 from Batzenhofen, 13 from Edenbergen, 19 from Rettenbergen and 6 from other places.
At the AGM 2011 the membership had increased to 108 even when the association had to take the death of three members and one withdrawal.
Thanks to the tireless recruitment of Secretary Ulrike Köhler the chairman was able to invite the impressive number of 112 members for the AGM 2012, but only a small fraction of them took part. In the year 2011 three financially very successful benefit concerts took place. Also the church administration decided that the project of organ renewal is not to be set at the end of the list of restoration projects to be done within the next years. Therefore already first contacts to organ builders and the Bavarian State Conservation Office were carried out.
In September 2012 during an on-site meeting with Dr. Nikolaus Könner of the Bavarian State Conservation Office and Father Stefan U. Kling OPraem., the organ expert of the Episcopal Ordinariate Augsburg, the issues of preservation were discussed. A totally new conception of the old organ was not totally ruled out by the experts, but first had to be checked, if it would be possible to bring the instrument with a repair action into a condition that ensures a long lasting good technical and sonic result, combined with easy maintenance and tuning.
A following investigation by organ builder G. Weishaupt has shown that this is not possible. Therefore at the end of 2012, an application for permission under Article 6 antiques protection law was prepared to get permission for the proposed redesign from the local authority. As every year, there were also numerous other activities.
At the annual meeting on 18 January 2013, the managing committee was re-elected. New 2nd Chairman got Dr. Renate Demharter; the previous second Chairman was due to time constraints no longer able to stay. As new 2nd member Johanna Seitz was elected. All other members of the managing committee were re-elected. End of February we got the permission to renew the inner workings of our organ by the Bavarian authority for the protection of monuments. Following together with Father Stefan Kling and our organists Petra Eckl and Sebastian Ehinger we developed both a proposal for the disposition and the request of tender for the new organ. But because of temporal delay with the renovation of our church tower we decided to wait with sending the request to the chosen organ makers. And of course there were various social activities as every year.
In 2014 there was only little progress: The renovation of our church tower lasted again longer than expected and because of the uncertain situation regarding target date and costs the organ project went on very slowly.
After the end of the tower renovation the church administration asked us in May 2015 to send the request to the four chosen organ makers. All of them showed their interest and gave us visits in June, August and September. The last offer we got in November. This was a year full,of activities.
But the AGM in 2016 gave reason for delay again: The next step in church renovation needs a scaffold inside the church and will produce lots of dust. So the new organ should not be installed before the end of this which for cost reasons cold not be started before summer 2017. So this year again the organ project went on very slowly.
This changed with the AGM in 2017: While always being a bar to further proceedings now the church renovation developed to a booster on the way to the new organ. For the renovation needs the organ to be removed it forces to choose an organ maker for the removal. This should usefully be the one that also gets the order for the new organ. So the offers had to be validated and an order had to be given. This lasted until August an the winner was Orgelbau Wech. We hope that there will be an increase in donations again as the organ will visibly be no longer there in late autumn. When things go well we will get the new instrument in late 2019.
On Sunday, November 5, 2017, the organ was ceremoniously played by both organists for the last time and a postlude was played to say goodbye to the organ at the end of the mass. Directly afterwards the service, numerous believers removed their some pipes as a souvenir - of course for a corresponding donation. On Wednesday November 8th the dismantling by Orgelbau Wech began and already on Monday November 13th the last parts were loaded and transported to Buchloe where Wech is located.
2018 was the first year in almost 100 years in which only a small Hire organ was there which had found its place in front of the right side altar. At the annual general meeting, the 10th in the association's history, the treasurer was able to report larger expenses for the first time, since the association had taken over the first partial payment for the new organ in November 2017. In the subsequent election of the managing committee, all members were confirmed in their jobs without dissenting votes. The conclusion of the meeting was a visual review of 10 years of the associations history (in German only). On January 23rd, the organ fan was disconnected, dismantled and stored in the attic of the choir. Then the front of the bellows house was dismantled, the tile and roof plate weights removed from the bellows, the bellows house completely dismantled, the bellows temporarily relieved with support boards, the actuating lever for the bellows removed, the holes in the floor below the bellows temporarily closed and finally the bellows covered with protective film. On May 4th, the parts for the new bellows house, which we had made ourselves in the Rößle carpentry, were delivered, lifted by crane onto the scaffolding that was available for the renovation work on the roof structure and from there stored by hand in the church attic, where millimeter work had to be done. In May, the association also took on the second installment for the new organ. In November, parts of the bellows house had to be moved to make the floor accessible for repair work. Furthermore, the association did the second partial payment for the organ. In November, parts of the bellows house had to be moved to make the floor accessible for repair work. Furthermore, the association took part in numerous activities.
In 2019 due to the renovation of the church's interior, the services were held in the parish hall with piano musik until the end of July. A burst water pipe put an abrupt end to this approach. A few weeks earlier, the preparatory work for the organ renewal had begun: In the attic, the new bellows house was partially set up and the old bellows prepared for repair by the Wech company.
On July 16th Wech started with repairing the bellows, which was taken over from the Schwarzbauer organ and on July 22, the delivery of the first organ parts marked the start of the long-awaited organ renewal. The bellows house was completed by ourselves on August 12th. The work on the organ came on 23.09. to its conclusion. The new organ was publicly performed for the first time on October 6th. The solemn blessing service (inauguration) took place on October 20th. So for the association it was again a year full of Activities.
At the annual general meeting in January 2020, the association had 119 members. Due to COVID-19 ("Corona"), the bi-monthly meetings had to be suspended. On October 29, Mr. Wech was on site with an employee to inspect the now 1 year "old" organ and to carry out some small tuning and adjustment work. He attested the organ to be in very good condition and praised the organists in this context. After consulting Father Stefan Kling we decided to sign a maintenance contract for the organ. As part of the ongoing church renovation, a new loudspeaker system was installed. Our association payed the costs for the radio microphone on the organ. For the Christmas services, probably for the first time in the 2000 year old history of Christianity it was forbidden to sing in the Holy Night. So it was all the more comforting to be able to accompany the services at least with a melodious organ. Due to Corona, the association took part in significantly fewer events than in previous years.
The for January 15, 2021 planned annual general meeting had already been canceled in the Advent-Christmas parish letter 2020 due to COVID. In this parish letter article also the essential association figures were mentioned, which would normally be reported on in such a meeting. In 2021, despite COVID, at least two organ meetings could take place again. At the end of July there was an organ performance by Messrs. Wech and Herb for visitors from St. Nikolaus in Murnau. On November 19th the author's reading "From Schmuttertal into the wide world" with HR Mayer took place.
The associations year 2022 began with the annual general meeting, which had to take place under 2G+ conditions. As expected, this led to a drop in participants of over 50%. Membership had fallen to 110. Various callers who got in touch with us because of our homepage were advised and supported in founding organ associations. At the 300th anniversary of the church's consecration, Bishop Bertram Meier celebrated the festive service, which was musically framed by the sounds of the organ by Marius Herb and a small brass band. Mr. H. R. Mayer gave us his eighth (!) musical author's reading, this time on the subject of "Water Thoughts". The church administration received a donation of 15,000 Euros from us for the restoration of the apostle figures in our parish church of St. Martin, since no costs for the organ were to be expected.
At the annual general meeting in 2023, the chairman was only able to welcome 16 members despite the election of the board. The number of members had fallen to 103. Except for the deceased assessor Johanna Seitz, for whom Claudia Ehinger could be won as a successor, all members of the board again made themselves available for the new election. All were elected unanimously and accepted the election.
The next event after the annual general meeting was the traditional annual citizens' reception of the city of Gersthofen, at which some members are always present. At the organ get-together in March, the board decided that the association would contribute 15 euros per appointment to the organist's fee, which could be increased to 40 euros that way. In June, our organ had a high-pitched whistling sound in two registers, a fault that the organist and the first chairman were able to correct without the organ builder's intervention and has no more occurred since. In September the number of members fell to 99. At the beginning of October, a delegation from the association visited the very well-attended charity event "Oskar Romero rockt" of the newly founded Gersthofer Organ Association. Also in October, the annual organ maintenance was carried out by Mr. Robert Wech. The costs for the maintenance contract will be reimbursed by the Diocese of Augsburg. At the end of November, the first chairman spoke at a meeting of the church administration on the topic of "automatic ventilation systems". After the lecture, the church administration agreed that action had to be taken. The association's 2024 year began with another musical author reading, this time on the topic "Halt mich - dein Handy" (Hold me - your cell phone), which was highly praised by the audience. At the annual general meeting, the chairman welcomed 20 of 99 members. Organist Dominik Schuster briefly introduced himself, thanked for the friendly welcome in the parish and for allowing him to play on our very special organ, which always gives great joy to him. The organ inspires him to always try something new and he is grateful for suggestions and requests and is open to playing together with other instruments.
 

 
back to start