Friedrich Ladegast was a famous German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 organ builder

Organ builder

-Australia:* William Anderson * Australian Pipe Organs Pty Ltd* Robert Cecil Clifton * William Davidson* J.E. Dodd & Sons Gunstar Organ Works* Fincham & Hobday* Geo. Fincham & Son* Alfred Fuller * Peter D.G. Jewkes Pty Ltd...

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Ladegast was born in Hochhermsdorf (now Hermsdorf), Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, to a carpenter and cabinet-maker. He worked first for his brother Christlieb, an organ builder at Geringswalde

Geringswalde

Geringswalde is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 12 km northwest of Mittweida, and 27 km north of Chemnitz.- History :...

, and built his first two organs at the age of twenty. He then traveled as a journeyman

Journeyman

A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....

 to various workshops, including those of Johann Gottlob Mende in Leipzig, Urban Kreutzbach in Borna

Borna

Borna is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the Leipzig district. It is situated approx. 30 km southeast of Leipzig. It has approx. 21,000 inhabitants.-History:Borna as a town is more than 750 years old....

, Adolf Zuberbier in Dessau

Dessau

Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...

, Martin Wetzel in Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, and Aristide Cavaillé-Coll

Aristide Cavaillé-Coll

Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was a French organ builder. He is considered by many to be the greatest organ builder of the 19th century because he combined both science and art to make his instruments...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. His work with Cavaillé-Coll was especially influential on his own designs; the two developed a friendship, and Ladegast introduced many technical innovations learned from Cavaillé-Coll's workshop to Germany, such as swell pedals and Barker lever

Barker lever

The Barker lever is a pneumatic system which multiplies the force of a finger on the key of a tracker pipe organ. It employs the wind pressure of the organ to inflate small bellows called "pneumatics" to overcome the resistance of the pallets in the organ's wind-chest . This lever allowed for the...

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He set up his own workshop at Weissenfels in 1846, with his first commission being for a small organ in Geusa

Geusa

Geusa is a village and a former municipality in the district Saalekreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Merseburg....

. He went on to build over 200 organs, with notable works including the reconstruction of the organ of the Merseburg

Merseburg

Merseburg is a town in the south of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on the river Saale, approx. 14 km south of Halle . It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese founded by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg....

 cathedral in 1855, and building the organ of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig in 1859–62. His son Oskar Ladegast took over his firm in 1898.