WEIMAR and THURINGIA – Travel guide for opera, classical music and culture

Thuringia was, next to Saxony / Leipzig, the central site of his work

Bach lived and worked in various places in Thuringia

Erfurt: ancestral home of the Bach family

Johann Sebastian Bach never lived in Erfurt, but often visited the place for family celebrations.

However, Erfurt can justifiably be called the cradle of the Bach family. More than 150 baptisms, weddings and funerals are recorded in the Kaufmannskirche, where Luther, among others, had preached. Johann Sebastian Bach’s parents were also married in this church. After their marriage they moved to Eisenach.

Youth and first professional years in Eisenach and surroundings

Bach’s parents moved from Erfurt to EISENSTADT, where his father was the town piper and responsible for church music, among other things. Bach was born here and was the youngest of 8 children. The family’s home on what is now Lutherstrasse no longer stands. Bach came into contact with music at an early age and was encouraged. When he was 8 years old, his mother died. His father married a widow, but soon after he too died. Johann Sebastian had become an orphan at the age of 8 and he moved with one of his brothers to his older brother Johann Christian in Orhdruf.

The latter was an organist there and had acquired his craft from Johann Pachelbel, among others. Thus Johann Sebastian received sound instruction from him. The small town of OHRDRUF had an excellent lyceum, where Bach, thanks to his tireless diligence, graduated with outstanding grades that entitled him to study at university. Because his brother’s household had grown, he now had to stand on his own two feet. Together with his school friend Georg Erdmann, who was two years his senior, the 15-year-old decided to make the 300-kilometer journey to Arnstadt.

3 years later Bach returns to the area. In ARNSTADT he becomes organist of the new Bonifatius Church. He is well paid and composes many of his works for organ here. He begins to build his reputation as an organist, once even being called to Weimar to test an organ. Bach’s reputation for not being an easy man becomes apparent in Arnstadt. He is constantly in conflict with the city council, which accuses him of neglecting his duties. In addition, he is often involved in fights with musicians and choir singers. He undertakes a trip to Lübeck to visit Buxtehude. The stay is a revelation for Bach. Bach is dissatisfied with the ability of the singers in the small town and so he decides to apply for the well-paid position of cathedral organist in Mulhouse. He passes the audition and in 1707 moves to Mühlhausen, 80 km to the north.

In MÜHLHAUSEN he rises in the hierarchy and becomes Kapellmeister of the church St. Blasii. The position is well paid and he can even supplement his salary by serving in secondary churches. Now he marries his love from Arnstadt Maria Barbara Bach, who will give birth to seven children, including the important composer Carl Philipp Emanuel. In 1707 a catastrophic town fire occurred in Mulhouse, destroying 300 houses, the fourth in 50 years. The city government was forced to raise taxes and the cost of living increased for Bach. When he traveled to Weimar for the completion of a renovation of the organ there, the prince offered him a job with a high salary. Bach accepted and announced his resignation from Mühlhausen after only one year.

Private happiness in Weimar – but Bach finally ends up in jail

Bach found his private happiness in Weimar, and six children were born, including Carl Philip Emanuel and Christian Friedemann, both of whom became famous musicians in their own right. However, two of the children, the twins Maria and Johann, died shortly after birth.
When Bach came to Weimar from Mulhouse in 1708, it was a reunion, for he had been acquainted with the city five years earlier. It was ruled by two princes, Wilhelm and Johann, both of whom were music lovers. Wilhelm was strictly Catholic and promoted church music to the best of his ability. For the first time, Bach had access to a professional orchestra and he composed 20 cantatas. Johann played music himself and promoted secular concert music, so Bach was able to work both styles of music.

Bach met Paul von Westhoff, who was also employed at court and lived in the same house as Bach. Bach improved his violin playing with the help of the violin virtuoso and wrote many of his works for violin here, including the Partita in D minor. Likewise, many of his harpsichord works were written here.

Much to Bach’s chagrin, he was subordinate to both the directors of concert music and court music. His position as court organist and concertmaster was very well paid, earning more than his two superiors, but he was an employee of the court and thus, as a lackey, not a free man, which was to be his undoing. When the Kapellmeister died, Bach was passed over and subsequently accepted an offer from the prince in Köthen without asking permission from the Weimar princes. When the Weimar prince Wilhelm was informed of this, he summarily had his lackey Bach stewed in his own juice in the dungeon (for more see the destination Torbau). In 1707, after a month in jail, Bach left Weimar for Köthen as a man with a criminal record.

TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY

Connection to the Prince and the Meiningen Orchestra

The Meiningen orchestra was one of the best in Europe at the end of the 19th century. The arts-minded sovereign George II, known as the “Theater Duke,” promoted the arts and Hans von Bülow led it to its greatest flowering from 1880. The two passionately championed Brahms’ work and the composer conducted the orchestra several times in Meiningen and on tours. In all, Brahms spent about 100 days in Meiningen.

The Duke made the orchestra available for so-called workshops and thus Brahms’ 2nd Piano Concerto had its non-public premiere here. As the culmination of the Meiningen connection to Brahms, the court theater was the premiere site of his 4th Symphony, conducted by the composer himself. This symphony, composed in Mürzzuschlag, has a prominent significance in music history; it was Brahms’ last symphony and perhaps the last of the Classical symphonies of the type founded more than 100 years earlier by Haydn.

Interestingly, Brahms’ potential successor was present in Meiningen, for it was during these years that Brahms met Richard Strauss in Meiningen, who would become Kapellmeister in Meiningen in 1885 as von Bulow’s successor. Brahms is also said to have conceded to Strauss a ” Quite pretty, young man” to his F minor symphony (which, from Brahms’ mouth, was a compliment). Strauss until then a Brahmsian became in that year under the influence of the concertmaster Ritter Wagnerian and switched from the symphony to the form of the symphonic poem.

Brahms later wrote four works for clarinet for the brilliant clarinetist of the Meiningen Orchestra, Richard Mühlfeld.

ZU DER VOLLSTÄNDIGEN BIOGRAFIE VON BRAHMS

Liszt found time for composing here

Weimar was one of the most important stations in Liszt’s life. From 1842 until his death in 1886, Weimar was his temporary and partial center of life. Liszt’s connection to Weimar began in 1841 with a concert at which the music-loving Princess Anna Pavlova was able to recruit Liszt for an extraordinary position as Kapellmeister at the court theater. In a side trip to Dresden, he heard Wagner’s Rienzi and got to know the composer. The visits to Weimar remained sporadic, however, and only after Liszt met Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein in 1847 did Liszt settle with her in Weimar as a regular Kapellmeister and they moved to the Altenburg, where his most productive composing activity began, which lasted for 12 years in relative seclusion and culminated in his Piano Sonata in B Minor. It was here that Richard Wagner visited him in 1849 on his flight from Dresden, during which Liszt helped him to escape on to Zurich. A year later, the premiere of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” took place at the court theater in Weimar, conducted by Liszt, with the composer absent, stuck in exile in Zurich.

He made Weimar an artistic center with international appeal

Liszt became involved with many composers at the court theater, the most frequently performed remaining Wagner with 36 performances, whom he also privately supported financially. Liszt worked in Weimar as a piano padägoge later famous musicians. Hans von Bülow, Emil von Sauer, Carl Tausig, Peter Cornelius and many others were often in Weimar with Liszt. Because his wife had inherited richly, Liszt was able to forgo a fee, and many of the students became a conspiratorial group that formed the core of the New Germans (in later rivalry with the traditionalists around Brahms and Hanslick). In 1859 Liszt left the Kapellmeister post when the performance of the “Barber of Bagdad” was hissed out.

Beginning in 1869, he returned to Weimar during the summer months, where the prince made a floor available to him in the residential building of the court nursery. Here Liszt devoted his time to the many students who visited him.

Goethe connection

In 1821, 12-year-old Felix Mendelssohn and his patron Zelter visited the poet prince at his home in Weimar. Zelter had been a friend of Goethe’s since 1802 and one of his few close friends. He had already announced the young Felix by letter (the text of which had an anti-Semitic tone that was probably common at the time). Ludwig Rellstab witnessed the meeting and reported how Mendelssohn enraptured the old Goethe.

First, Mendelssohn played a piano quartet of his own composition with three other musicians. Then he had to solve various tasks with improvisations and from sight-reading, which the young boy solved with bravura. And at the end he took out of a pack an autograph of a Beethoven composition with the almost illegible scrawl of the composer, which Mendelssohn played flawlessly from the sheet.

The child prodigy Mendelssohn reminded Goethe of Mozart

Goethe, then 12 years old, had heard the 9-year-old Mozart 58 years earlier on the latter’s Wunderkind Reise in Frankfurt and compared Mendelssohn to Mozart. Goethe was so enthusiastic that he invited Mendelssohn to stay for a while, and this turned into 16 days until Mendelssohn returned to Berlin. The two disparate people remained on friendly terms until Goethe’s death, three further meetings took place and a lively correspondence testifies to the warm affection of the two.

TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY

The young Felix Mendelssohn:

A short but important stop in Meiningen

In 1889 Strauss took up his post as second Kapellmeister in Weimar. Highlights were, firstly, the many Wagner performances by the passionate Wagner devotee.

And secondly, on May 10, 1894, Strauss was able to successfully premiere the opera “Hansel and Gretel” by the former Wagner assistant Humperdinck, in which Strauss’ later wife Pauline sang Hansel. The work was first performed on December 23 and has been considered a Christmas fairy tale ever since, even though the action is set in summer and the gingerbread is the only reminiscence of Christmas.

Pauline de Ahna also sang in the premiere of Strauss’s first opera, “Guntram,” first performed in Weimar. However, the knight opera, set in Wagnerian manner, was not a success, while his symphonic poems were. Strauss developed a steady concert schedule throughout Germany to get his tone poems on the playbills. In 1894, Pauline and Richard were married. They left Weimar and went back to Munich.

TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF STRAUSS

Liszt’s most important place of activity in Weimar

Goethe had taken over the direction of the court theater in 1791 and, together with Schiller, led it to flourish. Later Maria Pavlovna, wife of Grand Duke Carl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, developed it into a musical theater and hired Franz Liszt as court conductor in 1842. The theater subsequently became an important cultural center. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new theater building was constructed on the same site.

The old court theater:

It was the premiere site of the opera “Hansel and Gretel” by the former Wagner assistant Humperdinck, in which Richard Strauss conducted and his later wife Pauline sang Hansel. The work was first performed on December 23 and has been considered a Christmas fairy tale ever since, even though the action is set in summer and the gingerbread is the only reminiscence of Christmas. Strauss also premiered some his sinfonic poems.

National theater Weimar:

https://www.nationaltheater-weimar.de/

The orchestra had a reputation at the end of the 19th century as perhaps the best orchestra in Germany. An illustrious series of musical directors (von Bülow, Strauss, Max Reger) led the Hofkapelle.

The Meininger Hofkapelle resumed its original name in 2006, the original theater had burned down in 1908 and was replaced by a new building, which restored the original facade through renovation in 2011. The premiere of Brahm’s 4th symphony took place here.

Today, the high-level theater offers both concerts and musical theater.

Meiningen State Theater:

https://www.meininger-staatstheater.de/start/index.html

Here, in the Kaufmannskirche, all the festivities of the Bach family took place.

Kaufmannskirche:

Bach was baptized here

Eisenach is a historical Luther town, Luther went to school here for 2 years, in the church of St. George he also preached in adulthood. About 200 years later, Johann Sebastian Bach was baptized in this church. The 8-cornered baptismal font bears the date 1503 and so his baptismal font is still preserved.

Bach’s father often played music in this church and Johann Sebastian also often sang here and learned to play the organ from a relative who was the organist in this church. Bach’s parents were buried in the old cemetery (graves no longer exist).

Church St. George:

Here Bach acquired his first mastery of the organ with the help of his older brother, and he also sang in the church choir.

The church St. Michaelis was destroyed in 1945 during an air raid except for the tower. The tower was restored and a viewing platform was added.

St. Michael’s Church Ohrdruf:

There are still many traces of the Bach family in this town, houses where parts of the Bach family had lived. In the town museum you can see Bach’s employment contract. He only had to be on duty as organist in the Bonifatius Church on three days and thus had plenty of time to compose. Because the Bonifatius Church (today it is named after Bach) had been rebuilt after a fire, Bach was able to play on a brand new Wender organ. This organ has since been restored twice and is still in use today:

Wender Organ in the Johann Sebastian Bach Church:

The imposing church Divi Blasii is one of 11 churches of the old Thuringian town. Interestingly, this church received a new organ in 1959, which was built according to Bach’s surviving historical instructions for the organ in Mühlheim. This church is now a museum, regular concerts are held here (tickets can be booked through regular ticket providers).

Divi Blasii:

Please note the limited opening hours!

https://www.muehlhausen.de/kultur-tourismus/muehlhausen-entdecken/sehenswuerdigkeiten/kirchen/bach-kirche-divi-blasii/

A gem where Bach got married

Johann Sebastian Bach got married here in 1707. The wedding party came on foot from nearby Arnstadt. This tradition became an attraction, the church has become a popular wedding destination and some wedding party do like the famous Bachs and come on foot to this romantic church.

Bartholomäus-Church:

Bach schrieb zu diesem Ereignis die Hochzeitskantate «Der Herr denket an uns»:

An excellent Bach Museum

The Bach House at Frauenplan 21 is an excellent museum that introduces visitors to Bach’s life. It was created in 1907 on this site in one of the oldest buildings in the city (built in 1458) in the (presumably) mistaken belief that it was the birthplace of Johann Sebastian. With the support of collections and donations, it was established as a museum. During the Second World War, the attic was burned out and quickly renovated. In 2007 a new neighboring building was built and the museum was extended there.

Bach house:

In the museum you can learn about the stages of Bach’s life and walk through historically furnished rooms:

In addition, it has some historical instruments (from Bach’s time, but no instruments have survived from Bach’s possession), which can be listened to in short concerts played every hour. The building had mixed uses in Bach’s time. The first floor was probably a stable and the garden a pasture and/or vegetable garden. Nowadays it is furnished as a baroque vegetable garden:

In front of the museum stands the majestic Bach statue:

https://bachhaus-eisenach.de/en

Where Mendelssohn met Goethe

Mendelssohn played to Goethe (as did Clara Schumann later) in Goethe’s reception and music salon, the so-called Juno Room according to the cast that stands in this room. Even today, one can see the instrument made by the Weimar-based grand piano manufacturer Streicher, on which Mendelssohn played music.

Mendelssohn with Goethe in the June Room (Drawing):

Juno Room in the Goethe house Weimar (Picture from 1906):

The Juno Room today:

https://www.klassik-stiftung.de/goethe-nationalmuseum/goethes-wohnhaus/

The duke and duchess became friends with Brahms and so the artist often visited the couple and also stayed overnight in the castle. This baroque castle is now a museum and has a rich art collection and also offers exhibits of theater and music history.

Elisabethenburg Castle:

https://www.meiningermuseen.de/

Residence of Bach’s parents

Johann Sebastian Bach’s father got his first job as a town musician in Erfurt. During the examination he had to prove that he could play on 10 instruments. He moved into the Haus zum schwarzen Ross (House to the black horse) on the Krämerbrücke (Merchants’ Bridge) as his official residence. This unique structure is the largest built bridge in Europe and is still covered with half-timbered houses in the medieval style.

House to the black horse (at the back):

http://www.kraemerbruecke.de/de

Liszt first residence in Weimar

Liszt, together with his wife Carolyn von Sayn-Wittgenstein, made the Altenburg a cultural meeting place with European appeal for 12 years. Again and again celebrities found themselves in his salon, which became the center of the New Germans (with the initial Liszt and Wagner). Liszt lasted a long time in little Weimar, and the following bon mot made the rounds: “Old Weimar is a large city with 13,000 inhabitants. Neu-Weimar is a small community, but it has 13,000 enemies”.

When Liszt left Weimar, the entire interior of the Altenburg, which housed an immense amount of memorabilia, was dissolved and the Liszt House became the center of remembrance. Strauss campaigned for the reactivation of the Altenburg, but this project failed due to the looming First World War. Later the Altenburg became an offshoot of the Conservatory, meanwhile it is a redevelopment case.

Altenburg:

The city palace was Bach’s most important place of activity in Weimar. Most of the clerical compositions were composed for performances in the so-called Himmelsburg (castle chapel). This church unfortunately burned down to the outer walls in the 18th century. The chancel, built on a pedestal, was spectacular: above the altar was a high canopy that reached pyramid-shaped to the roof, where illuminated by a skylight was an organ, whose music sounded from above in the church.

Himmelsburg:

The City Palace is under constant renovation until 2030. Please check the visitor information.

https://www.klassik-stiftung.de/stadtschloss-weimar/

Brahms as a frequent guest of the princely couple

The duke and duchess became friends with Brahms and so the artist often visited the couple and also stayed overnight in the castle. This baroque castle is now a museum and has a rich art collection and also offers exhibits of theater and music history.

Elisabethenburg Castle:

https://www.meiningermuseen.de/

Here Bach served his jail sentence

It is assumed that Johann Sebastian Bach served his prison sentence in the tower. The prince wanted to teach the “stiff-necked” (original quote) Bach a lesson. However, the prince was not innocent in the quarrel. When the Kapellmeister died, he had secretly offered the position to Telemann. The latter was a friend of Bach and told him about it. When Bach applied for the position and wanted to obtain an audience with the prince, he did not hear from him, whereupon Bach accepted the offer from Köthen without permission. Bach did not let the one month in jail pass by unused and began the composition of his “Well-Tempered Clavier”. The presumed prison can be visited.

Bastille with Torbau:

In front of the church once stood the statue that now stands in front of the Bach House (see below). Liszt et Clara Schumann ont été invités à la visiter. En 1900, une statue avec un Bach en forme de dreinblick a été érigée au pied de l’église. It is believed that the artist took a painting as a model, which was mistaken as a picture of Bach.

Bach statue (in front of the Bach house):

Bach Statue: