Walter Kraft (Cologne, 9 June 1905 – Amsterdam, 9 May 1977) was a German organist and composer, best known for his remarkably long tenure (1929–72) at the Marienkirche, Lübeck.
[1] In 1929, Kraft was unanimously selected (from among 45 applicants) for a life appointment as organist in Lübeck's Marienkirche.
Such concerts, collectively called Abendmusik, had been regularly given by his predecessors at the church, notably Dietrich Buxtehude and Franz Tunder; but they had ceased in 1810, mainly due to the dislocation caused to northern Germany by the Napoleonic wars.
Kraft made numerous commercial recordings (primarily for the Vox label) during the LP era, most of which have been reissued on compact disc and as mp3s.
Once he retired in 1972 from the Marienkirche post, he apparently planned to write an opera,[2] but never finished any such work.