|
There is no longer any lodging in Germany where J.S. Bach
lived and worked. If one knows the different cities, and, in some cases, the places where his residence stood, no more traces exist.
In London, the house where George Frideric Handel lived for thirty-six years and where he died still exists. It became a museum. And many other composers lodgings exist. Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann lodgings in Leipzig, L.v. Beethoven in Vienna and W.A. Mozart, but not J.S. Bach.
In Germany, unfortunately, no single wall of a house lived by the master is today a place of memory for the many pilgrims who are lovers and admirers of his work.
A Bach enthusiast, dissatisfied with this lack of walls, a member of the Friends Association of Bach Archiv and Neue Bachgesellschaft of Leipzig, had the idea to search with the help of the cadastral maps of the city the exact location where J.S. Bach's home was located. This St. Thomas School (Thomasschule), in which the musician resided for twenty-seven years and died, was distroyed in 1902. At about the same place, a new building for the church pastors (Superintendentur) was built. J.S. Bach resided in the south end of the school; he occupied the basement, the ground floor and the upper floors. His office, kitchen and living room were on the first floor.
In Leipzig, it was long thought in the twentieth century that Cantors apartment was located inside the current superintendentur building. As a result, it was neither materializable nor accessible to pilgrims.
Irritated to not know precisely the location of the J.S. Bach's lodging, I obtained from the competent departments of the Leipzig City Hall the cadastral plans of the school before its destruction and the current cadastral plans. After homogenizing the writen measures on the different drawings, I superimposed the cadastral maps of the former St. Thomas School and the reconstructed building.
I was stunned to discover that part of the surface of Cantor's lodging in the school, at the south end of the school, his workroom, his Komponirstube, were located outside the periphery of the current building, on a small area of the pedestrian street that passes in front of St. Thomas Church (Thomaspforte) and in the garden of the Superintendentur!
When a building was destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century, and if there was no reconstruction in the same place, there was no reason and no mechanical means to excavate the foundations that remained underground. The foundations of the old wall and the basement floor of J.S. Bach's apartment therefore most likely have not been removed. The west basement wall of St. Thomas School was 1,20m thick, and for a very long time was the outer wall of the city. One can easily imagine that with a small archeology work, one would find by digging less than a meter deep the remains of the wall of one of the oldest and venerable schools in Germany. Part of this wall is under the gardens earth of the Superintendentur (pastors house) ; In the nearby pedestrian street, under the sidewalk, in front of the Superintendentur, one must also find the same wall.
J.S. Bach's dwelling consisted of a cellar and the ground floor, as well as several floors. If, therefore, by digging, one finds the wall in the street under the sidewalk, it is that of the cellar of the the Cantors apartment . And one must necessarily find, there also, the floor of the cellar of his dwelling. |
|
The attached photos and plans show the locations, the destroyed school, the windows of Cantor's house in the school, views from the west and east, the places to dig, as well as various drawings and corresponding cadastral maps. Of the school and housing. All these served to produce this information.
If there is in Leipzig the will, now or later, to materialize this site, They could at low cost bring to light the foundations of the school at this place, which are the walls of the of Cantors lodging. The sidewalk in the pedestrian street could be replaced by a transparent plate, allowing touristes to see below the wall and the floor of the basement. And on this plate it would be easy to trace the contours of the rooms on the first floor of the house. On the wall of the Superintendentur, they could place explanatory panels. All plans exist!
Of course, the site belongs to the superintendentur and to the city of Leipzig and only they can decide what is possible or not.
But J.S. Bach belongs also to the world and is one of our civilizations greatest genius. Maybe for the many pilgrims coming to Leipzig in search of J.S. Bach, seeing this extra display would bring them closer to their quest.
A fundraising from music lovers worldwide for such a cause should be easy and easily finance the costs of work that the Leipzig City Hall would decide to order.
Marc Boss (President of Versailles Chamber Orchestra) |
