The organ of St. Nikolaikirche in Elmshorn was begun in 1684 by the renowned Hamburg organ builder Joachim Richborn, who passed away in the same year. The completion of the work was taken over by the young Arp Schnitger, who later became the most significant organ builder of the North German Baroque era: for the first time, he worked on Schleswig-Holstein soil. Therefore, the significance of this instrument cannot be overstated; furthermore, it represents a stylistically unique fusion: the young highly talented organ builder, who at that time was building the largest organ in Hamburg (at St. Nikolai am Hopfenmarkt), was allowed to complete the -significantly smaller- work of one of the most important figures in North German organ building – Joachim Richborn had, for example, built or expanded the organs in St. Michaelis and St. Katharinen in Hamburg.

Schnitger created an instrument based on Richborn's work with a total of 23 stops on two manuals and pedal. From this period, the front parts of the historic case and the pipes of the Principal 4′ and Octave 8′ are still preserved, making them the oldest organ pipes in the Rantzau-Münsterdorf church district. This organ was rebuilt by Marcussen in 1853; the stops of the Rückpositiv were integrated into the main case. The subsequent work after 1853 can be seen as a slow decline from the originally artistically high-quality concept: in 1912/13, there was a pneumatic conversion by the Kemper company; in 1935, 1948, 1961, various firms carried out individual measures before Weigle company destroyed numerous still preserved historical pipes in 1971, partly gave them away, and replaced them with newly built pipes; only the elements mentioned above were preserved. In 2019, the church council decided to reconstruct the Richborn-Schnitger organ in the form of 1850 – the contract for this large and artistically significant project was awarded to the Rowan West company in Altenahr.

Additionals: Tremulant SW POS, SW/HW, POS/HW, SW/Ped, POS/Ped, HW/Ped, Schweller II, Schweller III, Registerwalze, Tutti

https://orgellandschaft-kkrm.de/orgeln/elmshorn-nikolai/