Already during his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach was highly esteemed as a renowned virtuoso and acknowledged organist. But it was only after his death that his music was to achieve the fame that seems self-evident today. The city of Eisenach dedicates a rich programme to its great son, which will inspire you.
Bach's earlier ancestors are said to have been good and pious bakers, until the love of music probably gradually gained the upper hand. After all, one of the world's most famous dynasties of musicians was to emerge from the widely ramified Lutheran Central German Bach family. Almost all of them were active as cantors, organists, town pipers, members of court chapels or clavichord/harpsichord/lute makers and were known far beyond the borders of Thuringia and Saxony.
The most famous Bach, however, was Johann Sebastian, who was baptized in the Church called Georgenkirche in Eisenach two days after his birth in March 1685. The baptismal font still stands there today and delights many astonished visitors. In the Georgenkirche, several representatives of the Bach family have worked as organists for generations.
