Guide to Bach Tour

Contents

Description & History | Events in Life History of J.S. Bach | Performance Dates of J.S. Bach’s Vocal Works | Features of Interest | Information & Links | Photos Part 1 | Photos Part 2: Bachhaus Outside | Photos Part 3: Bachaus Inside | Photos Part 4: Gerogenkiche | Maps

Description & History

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on the 21^st March 1685 in Eisenach and grew up here until he was ten. Within nine months he lost first his mother and then his father. As a result of this, his brother Johann Christoph, who was 14 years older, took him to his house in Ohrdruf. Nevertheless, the impressions from his childhood of the little Royal Town, with its 7,000 inhabitants, remained with him. Martin Geck writes in his biography about the composer, that the town unites everything in detail like an "original scene" which later became his purpose in life and which he simply built on productively: The family house which served as the old Town Pipery, the Latin School, rich in tradition, with its school choir in the old Dominican Monastery, the Church of St. George with its organ, the Town Hall with the tower trumpeters, and the nearby Wartburg.

A whole row of the "Bache" settled down in Eisenach too. Bach's uncle, Johann Christoph, founded a tradition of organists in 1665, which carried on in unbroken succession for 132 years.

Other famous names also made their mark on the musical life of that time: Johann Pachelbel, Daniel Eberlin, Georg Philipp Telemann. Father Ambrosius Bach was in the service of the town as town piper since 1671. During the early years, he lived in the Rittergasse 11, which is today an attractive half-timbered house with a memorial plaque.

Directly opposite is the garden of the Bach House, which has been the official Bach Museum since 1907. The entrance is on the Frauenplan 21, where a Bach memorial made by Adolf von Donndorf in 1884 stands in the middle of the garden. Each year on the 21^st of March, the birthday of Bach is remembered with a ceremony. The Bach House, which originally was taken for the birthplace of Bach, is a middle class house from the 16^th/17^th century with historic furniture. Apart from an extensive collection of instruments from the 16^th to 19^th century it houses today a permanent exhibition on the life and work of J. S. Bach and his relatives and regularly there are invitations to top quality concerts in the Instrument Hall. However, even during the daily museum opening times; every visitor can experience the live sound of historic keyboard instruments.

Bach was baptised on the 23^rd of March 1685 in the Church of St. George on the Market Square. The original Romanic building was reconstructed in the 16^th century into a three-aisle hall church: In the vestibule there is a statue of Bach, which originates from the Berlin sculptor Paul Birr. Every year in spring the town honours Bach with concerts by well-known artists within the framework of the Thuringian Bach Weeks. Not far from here, at the Prediger Square is the old Latin School, where 200 years before Bach another important man of this town went to school: Martin Luther, whose name is given to the present day Grammar School.

The town became famous thanks to Martin Luther and Bach. However, in the area of conflict between the Wartburg and the Bach House, other great minds showed their reverence to this idyllic town which lies at the gateway to the Thuringian Forest: In particular Goethe, who is said to have been here about twenty times, but also Richard Wagner: Franz Liszt and last but not least the poet Fritz Reuter, who spent his old age at the foot of the Wartburg.

Events in Life History of J.S. Bach

Date/Year	Event
Prior J.S. Bach’s Birth (1600-1685)
Oct 12, 1671	Successful audition and appointment of Johann Ambrosius Bach (J.S. Bach’s father) as court trumpeter & director of town music in Eisenach
Eisenach & Ohrdruf (1685-1700)
Mar 21, 1685	Birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, seventh and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth
Mar 23, 1685	Baptism at Georgenkirche, Eisenach’s main church
May 3, 1686	Burial of sister Johanna Juditha
1690-1693	Attends a German school in Eisenach
1692	Enrolment in the Latin School, Eisenach
May 1, 1694	Death of mother (age 50)
Nov 27, 1694	Marriage of father Johann Ambrosius with Barbara Margaretha Bartholomäi, née Keul
Feb 20, 1695	Death of father (age 50); buried Feb 24

Performance Dates of J.S. Bach’s Vocal Works: None.

Features of Interest

Information & Links

Bachhaus (Bach House): where J.S. Bach was born and grew up until he was 10 years old.
Bach Memorial and school
Georgenkirche (St. George Church): where J.S. was baptised.
Lutheran School: which J.S. Bach attended.
Wartburg, Luther House
Preachers’ Church, with exhibition entitled “Medieval Art in Thuringia”
Reuter Villa with the Richard Wagner Collection
Automobile Museum
Nicolaikirche (Church of St. Nicolai)

Bachhaus (Bach House)
Frauenplan 21
D-98817 Eisenach
Tel: +49-3691/79340 / Fax: +49-3691/793424
Website: Bachhaus Eisenach
E-mail: bachaus@t-online.de

Gerogekirche (St. George Church)
Markt
D-98817 Eisenach

Tourism Eisenach GmbH
Eisenach Tourist Information
Markt 2
D-98817 Eisenach
Te: +49-3691-19433, +49 3691-79 23-0 / Fax: +49-3691-7923-20
Website: Eisenach Tourist [German/English]
E-mail: tourist-info@eisenach-tourist.de

Eisenach (Official Website) [German/English]
Eisenach Online [German]
Eisenach/Thüringen (Meinestadt) [German]
Die Wartburg Eisenach [German]
Lutherhaus in Eisenach [German/English]

Bachhaus Eisenach
Eisenach 1685-1695 (Koster)
The J.S. Bach Tourist 2: Eisenach (Koster)
On the Traces of J.S. Bach: Eisenach (Germany Tourism)
On the Traces of J.S. Bach: Eisenach Bach House (Germany Tourism)
Eisenach (Wikipedia) [various languages]
Cityreview: Thüringen > Eisenach [German]
J.S. Bach Biographie: Eisenach 1685-1695 (Schlu) [German]
J.S. Bach Education & Career: Eisenach 1685-1695 (T.A. Smith)
J.S. Bach Biography: Childhood (Carolina Classical)

Prepared by Aryeh Oron (October 2003 – April 2004)

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Last update: ýApril 6, 2004 ý16:45:03