In 1905 the Sauer Organ of the Berliner Dom was the largest in Germany, with its 7269 pipes and 113 registers, distributed across four manuals and pedals. The court organ builder Wilhelm Sauer, from Frankfurt on the Oder, created an instrument that embodied the newest technical and musical developments of German organ building at the time. In that way, the organ met the high expectations of both the organ builder and his client: in the Protestant Cathedral of the capital city, there was to be a monumental, modern, and in every way extraordinary instrument of the highest quality. The organ of the Cathedral of Berlin represents the highpoint of Sauer’s career. At the same time, it marks the end of the long development of Romantic orchestral organs, whose sound corresponds to the characteristic sound of a symphonic orchestra of that period. Today, the organ in the Cathedral of Berlin is the largest late-Romantic pneumatic action organ in the world that has survived in its original condition.
Hoforgelbaumeister Wilhelm Sauer aus Frankfurt/Oder baut mit dieser Orgel ein Instrument, das 1905 den neuesten technischen und musikalischen Stand der deutschen Orgelbaukunst und die größte Orgel in Deutschland verkörperte.
Die Berliner Domorgel stellt den Höhepunkt in Sauers Schaffen dar und beendet gleichzeitig die lange Entwicklung der romantischen Orchesterorgel, deren klangliche Charakteristik dem damaligen Sinfonieorchester entspricht.
Heute ist die Orgel im Berliner Dom die größte noch im ursprünglichen Zustand erhaltene Orgel aus der Zeit der „Spätromantik“.
