In 1737 the Preussian musician Johann Daniel Berlin was appointed organist of Nidaros cathedral, which at that time had no organ as the previous ones had been lost when the cathedral was stroke by several fires. It seems to have been Berlin who ordered the new organ from the renown organ builder Joachim Wagner in Brandenburg. This was against the will of the King, who wanted the organ to be ordered from Copenhagen, who at that time had monopoly on building organs in the Danish/Norwegian kingdom.
The organ was built in the workshop of Wagner in Germany in the years of 1739–1741 and then shipped to Trondheim, where it was put up by Wagners talented scholar Peter Migendt.
The organ is known to be the only instrument Wagner built outside Mark Brandenburg, and one of only five larger remaining organs from the hands of Joachim Wagner.
During the 19th century the organ underwent several changes due to the new ideals of organ sound, until it in 1930 was replaced by the Steinmeyer organ. The cathedral was by then restored back to its former glory after being party in ruins after the reformation, and the Wagner organ was too small to serve as the main organ of the 100 meter long cathedral.
However, the new organ was built behind the prospect of the old baroque organ, whose pipes luckily where stored in the cathedral for centuries, until it was restored by the reknown organ builder Jürgen Ahrend, and put up in the north transept of the cathedral in 1994.
Today it represents a very well preserved example of the organ builder tradition from the community around Johann Sebastian Bach.