{{Short description|German organ builder (1818–1905)}} {{no footnotes|date=December 2013}} thumb|Friedrich Ladegast '''Friedrich Ladegast''' (August 30, 1818 – June 30, 1905) was a famous German organ builder.
Ladegast was born in Hochhermsdorf (now Hermsdorf), Saxony, to a carpenter and cabinet-maker. He worked first for his brother Christlieb, an organ builder at Geringswalde, and built his first two organs at the age of twenty. He then traveled as a journeyman to various workshops, including those of Johann Gottlob Mende in Leipzig, Urban Kreutzbach in Borna, Adolf Zuberbier in Dessau, Martin Wetzel in Strasbourg, and Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in Paris. 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 levers.
[[File:Iglesia colegial de Poznan, Poznan, Polonia, 2014-09-18, DD 22-24 HDR.jpg|thumb|The Ladegast organ in the Poznań Collegiate]]
He set up his own workshop at Weißenfels in 1846, with his first commission being for a small organ in Geusa. He went on to build over 200 organs, with notable works including the reconstruction of the organ of the Merseburg Cathedral (IV/81, 1855), and building the organ of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig (IV/84,1859–62). His largest instrument was for Schwerin Cathedral (IV/84, 1870–71). His son, Oskar Ladegast, took over his firm in 1898.
==References== * {{cite encyclopedia | title = Ladegast, Friedrich | encyclopedia = Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians | editor = Theodore Baker and Alfred Remy | edition = 3rd | year = 1919 | page = 501 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=H2kNAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA501}} * {{cite encyclopedia | title = Ladegast, Friedrich | encyclopedia = The Organ: An Encyclopedia | editor = Douglas E. Bush and Richard Kassel | pages = [https://archive.org/details/organencyclopedi0000unse/page/297 297–298] | year = 2006 | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 0-415-94174-1 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/organencyclopedi0000unse/page/297 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladegast, Friedrich}} Category:1818 births Category:1905 deaths Category:People from Mittelsachsen Category:German pipe organ builders Category:Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Germany