The organ builder dynasty Merklin comes from the Breisgau. Franz Joseph Merklin (1788-1857) founded the workshop in Oberhausen and later moved it to Freiburg. The family gave birth to six independent organ builders. August Merklin (1860-1940), who worked in Tegernau, came from the grandson generation of Franz Joseph. He learned organ building in Freiburg and his journeyman years took him to Paris, Brussels and Lyon, where his uncle Joseph Merklin worked. He came back in 1883. Merklin was one of the leading organ building companies and a competitor of the famous Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Merklin ran a purely handcrafted company. Series production had been introduced in organ building since around 1880, but not at Merklin. Here, every instrument was redesigned and each component individually manufactured for a special quality – as in Tegernau.
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