Briefly, the church is currently approximately some 1000 metres away from the end of the runway. In order to accommodate the new Airbus, the runway will have to be extended to within about 300 metres of the church.
The first thing is that it is questionable if the Airbus needs to come to Hamburg at all. All that would be done in Hamburg would be the fitting out of the interior of the aircraft. What is more, only those aircraft destined for customers in Europe and the Near East would be fitted out in Hamburg and only half of those. All the rest would be done in Toulouse. So of the whole, only about 4% of the work would be done in Hamburg. So one asks if it would not make a lot more sense to concentrate on the smaller Airbus construction at Finkenwerde as at present. However, for the Hamburg Senate it is a prestige matter. The Senate is saying that up to 4000 jobs would be secured if the work did come to Hamburg. However, it has not been prepared to say that these would be NEW jobs, nor to guarantee that they would even be jobs in Hamburg. Nor has it (to my knowledge) made any distinction between jobs in Hamburg and elsewhere, or which jobs would be direct employment in Finkenwerde, and which would arise (on a temporary basis) for the extension of the runway and the filling in of part of the Elbe to make more room for the works themselves and the vast hangers which would have to be built (the filling in of part of the Elbe being an environmental issue).
The Senate has stated that the church is under ancient monument protection and has stated it in such a way as to give the impression that this is new. In fact, it has been so for at least 40 years, nor is the status any guarantee that the church is safe from demolition. That it is in the way is evident as regulations stipulating the maximum height of buildings within a certain distance from the runway themselves stipulate that the church spire is about 10 metres too high as it is. In addition, there is concern for the building itself from the vortexes that are generated by the aircraft. These are the effects created by aircraft which sometimes get as far as ground level and rip the tiles off the roofs of houses near Heathrow. The degree of effect is dependent on the speed of the aircraft and its weight. The new Airbus will weigh up to 500 tonnes and is thus much heavier than even a Jumbo jet (There are concerns in America that bridges and runways at Kennedy Airport will have to be strengthened as reported in the NYT last weekend). These forces could shake the roof of the building at Neuenfelde and as the organ is actually attached to the roof in this instance, it is more than relevant.
One option would be to move the church to some other place in the middle of nowhere, but Neuenfelde is a very active and lively community and the church is still very active with a good down-to-earth pastor. Moving the church would destroy the very reason for the church and be like putting a Strad. violin into a glass case.
The future of the church and the organ is by no stretch of the imagination secure at the present time and it is up to all of us to do our bit. As yet, the Senate is not really aware of the international interest of this organ and we must make that clear. I appeared to be the only foreign person there and my getting up and saying how important the organ is to organ builders all over the world was something of a show stopper and raised the only round of applause. Indeed, it was mentioned that I was there in the Hamburger Abendblatt.
The people at Neuenfelde are struggling with no funds and fighting big business and political at almost impossible odds. Get on the web site and write letters as much as you can and also get as many other people to do the same. You can download a standard letter from the web site which can be faxed to the organisers. Take copies to meetings and spread the word.
For those of you who are not aware, this Schnitger organ is special. It is in a wonderful church (well worth a visit even if it did not have an organ at all) and the organ is practically untouched even with a restored and original winding system (6 wedge bellows worked by foot). What is more, unlike some of the Schnitgers, it is in its original location with a good acoustic. There is too much to be lost.
Go to www.schnitgerorgel.de and do your bit.
