The verifiable history of the organs in St. Sebald goes back to the 15th century. Certain walls on a triforium of the south wall of the nave suggest that there may have been an organ built as a log structure there as early as the late Romanesque period. In the years 1440 to 1443 the Mainz organ builder Heinrich Traxdorf, who also built two small organs in the Frauenkirche, created a main organ for St. Sebald. The Gothic case of the Traxdorf organ, which hung in the east choir above the pointed arch of the south aisle, was considered the oldest surviving organ case in the world until its demise. In 1691 it was completely renovated by Georg Siegmund Leyser. In 1906 the Nuremberg organ builder Johannes Strebel delivered a two-manual organ with 28 registers.[5] The prospectus and the organ were completely destroyed in the Second World War; Only two small figures and the so-called reed monkey could be recovered from the rubble and adorn today's modern organ case.
In 1947 the restored nave of the church was given a used organ by the Steinmeyer company (Oettingen), which had been built in 1904 as op. 844 for St. James' Church in Oettingen. The instrument originally had 26 registers on two manuals and pedal. After the reconstruction of the east choir, it was expanded at the new location on the south wall of the choir in 1957 and 1962 by the building company to 57 registers on three manuals and pedal so that it could also be used for concerts, mainly during the International Organ Weeks in Nuremberg could become. This interim organ was given to the St. Petri Church in Soest in 1975.
Today's main organ with 72 registers on three manuals and pedal was built in 1975-1976 at the same place as the previous organ by the organ builder Willi Peter (Cologne) according to a layout draft by Werner Jacob, Otto Mayer (Ansbach) and Ernst Karl Rößler. The scales are by Rößler and Norbert Späth, the case design by Walter Supper and Helmut Klöpping. The slider chest instrument has mechanical actions, the couplers are electric. The instrument is 14.33 m high, weighs 20 tons and, together with the choir organ, has over 6000 pipes. The three-manual game cabinet is located in the lower case of the main organ
Source: Wikipedia