The organ at Kongsberg Church was built during the years 1760 to 1765 by Gottfried Heinrich Gloger, who worked as an organ builder and organist in Norway from the end of the 1730s and until his death in 1779. As an independent builder, he was responsible for the following organs:
* Church of the Cross (Bergen) 1738
* Church of the virgin Mary (Bergen) 1739
* Risør Church 1743
* Kristiansand Cathedral 1747
* Bergen Cathedral 1749
* Kongsberg Church 1765
* Sem Church 1768
* Mære Church 1771
* Stiklestad Church 1776
Towards the end of the 1760s Gloger agreed to build a new organ for Our Lady Church in Trondheim, but due to other commissions and to economic difficulties, he was not able to start work at Our Lady in time, so the contract was instead given to Johann Daniel Busch from Itzehoe in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Of the organs listed above, only the Kongsberg organ remains today.
Originally, the contract for the Kongsberg organ specified a 3 manual and pedal instrument with 35 stops. However, the plans were altered so that the organ was finally built with 42 stops. Because of this and other alterations to the contract, the organ was not finished within 2 years, as set forth in the contract. The work probably proceeded without problems until 1763, but then Gloger's wife died. After this, he struggled with health problems and debts.
According to the contract, Gloger was to be paid 2200 Riksdaler (obsolete currency unit) for the organ. This price was in fact set far too low. Gloger had been put under heavy pressure during the negotiations, in terms of the cost of the instrument as well as the duration of the construction period. In addition, as mentioned above, he was pressured by the church authorities to provide a larger instrument than specified in the contract. Even though opinions about the organ were somewhat divided when it was finished, the church authorities had to acknowledge that the organ was worth a great deal more than the agreed 2200 Riksdaler. After negotiations, Gloger was finally paid 4000 Riksdaler for his work.
In the 1860s the organ was restored by Paul Christian Brantzeg, who was a pupil of the organ builder Peter Adolph Albrechtsen. Brantzeg had studied and worked with the important organ builders Cavaillé-Coll in Paris, and W. Hill and J. W. Walker in London before setting up as an independent builder in Norway. Shortly after this restoration the organ was seriously damaged by water during a fire in the church loft. In 1890 a new organ was built for the church by the German builder Albert Hollenbach, but the Gloger organ still remained in its gallery directly above the altar.
In 1932 a new restoration of the Gloger organ was funded by a generous donation. This time the work was done by J. H. Jørgensen's Organ Factory. But even though the intention was to restore the instrument, the result was a new instrument with electrical action and 58 stops behind Gloger's old facade. Contemporary views on the matter were in fact divided. On one side, the antiquarian authorities, the Antiquarian Society and the well-known and respected organ expert Olaf Platou wanted an "archaeological restoration". On the other side, the director of music at Oslo Cathedral, Arild Sandvold, who was the consultant for the Kongsberg restoration, and Jørgensen, wanted to modernize the instrument. In the end, one of Jørgensen's plans, with an addendum by Sandvold, was approved by the authorities. The parts of the organ that were removed during the 1932 restoration were placed in storage.
Due to serious faults in the electrical systems, the organ was deemed a fire hazard in 1994 and was taken out of use. It has now been restored by the internationally renowned expert Jürgen Ahrend, who also was responsible for the very successful restoration of the Wagner organ at Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim. The Gloger organ at Kongsberg was reinaugurated in January 2001.
