Guide to Bach Tour
Waltershausen [V]

Contents

Description | History
J.S. Bach: Connection | Events in Life History | Performance Dates of Vocal Works | Festivals & Cantata Series
Features of Interest | Information & Links
Photos: Part 1 | Maps

Description

Waltershausen is the second largest city in the district of Gotha in the State of Thuringia, Germany. It lies between the Thuringian Basin in the northeast and the Thuringian Forest in the southwest.

Country: Germany | State: Thuringia | District: Gotha | Area: 71.20 km² | Population: 13,110 (December 2016)

History

The place developed at the crossing of the old salt road from Salzungen to Erfurt and from Eisenach to Saalfeld. In addition, the 1176 for the first time mentioned Burg Tenneberg offered protection for the town dwellers. Another advantage for the location was the bottleneck between the castle hill and the goat mountain, which had to pass through the entire traffic, as the forest was very impassable.

The town itself was first mentioned in 1209 under the name Ulricus, villicius de Waltherißhusin. The town belonged to the county Mühlburg (mentioned in a document of 1293) and was under the feudal authority of the Archbishopric of Mainz. At that time it was already in possession of town rights. In 1392 Waltershausen and the Burg Tenneberg were determined to Leibgedinge for the future daughter-in-law of the Thuringian Landgrave. In the following period Waltershausen belonged to the Wettinisch-Ernestinischen office Tenneberg, which belonged from 1640 to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha.

Waltershausen with the district Langenhain was from 1618 to 1658 affected by witch hunt. Eight women and one man were involved in witch trials, two were executed, three were punished with a national referral.

Waltershausen has a tradition founded in 1815 as a doll's town. It was in the 19th century a variety of toy and doll factories. The first doll and toy factory was founded in 1816 by Johann Daniel Kestner. The Thuringian Forest Railway was extended to Waltershausen in 1929 and has since connected the town with Bad Tabarz in the southwest and Gotha in the northeast. Within the German Empire (1871-1918), Waltershausen was part of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

At the beginning of the 1930's, Walterhausen was home to nine Jewish families, all deprived of their homeland by emigration and deportation. A single woman survived the concentration camp Theresienstadt and lived from 1945 in Eisenach. During World War II, about 600 prisoners of war and forced laborers from numerous German-occupied countries had to do forced labor at technical companies, in the Ade plant, in the Thüringer Schlauchweberei (Thuringian tube weaving) mill and other companies. In the cemetery of Waltershausen many graves remind of prisoners of war and forced laborers.

On May 9, 2008, a stumbling block was laid by Gunter Demnig for the deported Jew Klara Felstyner at the corner of Bremerstrasse and Quergasse. She died in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto. This stumbling block was followed by 5 more.

The town of Waltershausen had, like all German cities, a large number of fallen soldiers of the two world wars. On February 6, 1945 Waltershausen experienced - as on the same day several cities in the region - an American bombing raid. 12 "Flying Fortresses" B-17G threw 30 tons (120 pieces) of bombs at 8,000 meters high at noon. Twenty-one buildings were destroyed and 20 dead were counted.

The industrial production of dolls ended in 1990. Until recently, the Waltershäuser Puppenmanufaktur occasionally produced dolls. These were collectible dolls that met high aesthetic standards. The doll town only exists as a souvenir in the museum of the town. In 2003, Waltershausen commune settled in the building complex of the above listed doll factory.

Sister Cities

France Bruay-sur-l'Escaut, France (Département Nord) (since 1965)
Germany Korbach, Germany (Hesse) (since 1990)
Poland Wolbrom, Poland (Voivodship Małopolskie) (since 2000)
Germany Hanau, Germany (Hesse) (since 1990)

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the town

Gerhard Altenbourg (1926-1989), artist
Eduard Ausfeld (1850-1906), historian
Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757-1822), naturalist, forestr scientist and ornithologist
Hans Erhard Bock (1903-2004), internist
Jürgen Fuchs (1947-1977), victim at the inner German border
Heinrich Credner (1809-1876), geologist
Rosa v. Gerold, b Henneberg (1829–1907), travel writer
Johann Justinus Gebauer (1710-1772), publisher
Martin Gimm (b 1930), university professor, c1945-1949 also organist in Waltershausen, Ibenhain, Laucha and Schmerbach
Lilo Grahn (1943-2007), actress
Gustav Hempel (1819-1877), publisher
Friedrich Holbein (1856-1940), painter and graphic artist
Carl-Heinz Janson (b 1931), politician (SED)
Johann Matthäus Juncker (1629-c1703), court advocate, writer, poet of hymns
Hans Kehr (1862-1916), founder of the German bile duct surgery, brother of Paul Fridolin Kehr
Paul Fridolin Kehr (1860-1944), historian and diplomat, brother of Hans Kehr
Johann Balthasar König (1691-1758), composer & church musician; from 1727 to 1758 municipal Kapellmeister in Frankfurt am Main, family lived in the Tiergarten and in the corner house Borngasse / Brühlgasse (today: Borngasse 17)
Lorenz G. Löffler (1930-2013), anthropologist
Kathleen Lorenz (b 1984), skeleton pilot
Alexander Ludwig (b 1984), football player
Gernot Moegelin (b 1943), German real estate entrepreneur and art patron
Gunar Ortlepp (1929-2011), journalist
Klaus-Michael Bonsack (b 1941), luger
Georg P. Salzmann (1929-2013), book collector
Friedrich von Schlichtegroll (1765-1822), member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, philologist, numismatist, antiquarian, author of necrology and W.A. Mozart biographies
Margit Schumann (1952-2017), luger and Olympic champion
Ernst Wallenburger (1903-1989), painter and graphic artist; was a drawing teacher at the secondary school after 1945

Other personalities

Johann Draconites Carlstadt (1494-1566), reformer and close friend of Martin Luther; at times pastor in Waltershausen
Walter Grundmann (1906-1976), theologian, priest between 1947 and 1954 in Waltershausen.
Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths (1759-1839), educator, founder of gymnastics, lived since 1797 in Waltershausen
Johann Adolph Jacobi (1769-1847), Protestant theologian
Paul Kämpf (1885-1953), politician (SPD), mayor Waltershausens after the end of World War II
Martin Luther (1483-1546) stayed overnight here on a drive from Eisenach. His brother Georg Luther lived temporarily at the market square.
Julius Albert Kühn (1887-1970), writer, grandson of the poet Julius Sturm, was headmaster of secondary school since 1934
Monika Lennartz (b 1938), actress, grew up in Waltershausen.
Carl Polack (1812-1882), town physicist, home historian
Johann Heinrich Ritter (c1690-1751), Ducal Court painters, designed ceiling paintings in the church and in the Schloss Tenneberg
Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811), pedagogue, founder of the Salzmannschule in Waltershausen; lived since 1784 in the town
Adele Sandrock (1863-1937), actress, her father Eduard Othello Sandrock (1832-1897) came from Waltershausen, her grandfather Christoph Wilhelm Sandrock was from 1838 to 1851 First Mayor of the city, Adele 1873/1874 lived with her father's sister in Waltershausen
Ernst Schäfer (1910-1992), zoologist, well-known Tibetan researcher, grew up in Waltershausen
Victor von Scheffel (1826-1886), poet of the Biedermeier period; to his memory, the bushel-lime tree in the Ausfeldstraße and a street was name
Kathrin Schmidt (b 1958), writer, grew up in Waltershausen, winner of the German Book Prize 2009
Heinrich Schwerdt (1810-1888), pastor, pedagogue and writer, from 1872 superintendent of the Ephorie Tenneberg
Christian W. Staudinger (b 1952), artist, grew up in Waltershausen.
Just Christian Stuß (1725-1788), classical philologist, writer and clergyman, pastor and superintendent in the town
August Trinius (1851-1919), a writer, had lived in Waltershausen since about 1880, where the poet Joachim Ringelnatz visited him several times.
Maria Uhden (1892-1918), painter; lived 1900 to 1910 in Waltershausen Am Nicolausthor.

Source: German Wikipedia (April 2018); BCW

Bach Connection

Located in the heart of Thuringia ca. 26 km/16 miles southeast of Eisenach, Waltershausen possesses the region’s largest Baroque organ. The instrument, boasting about 70 percent original pipes, is widely considered to be the "most authentic Bach organ." Dating from approximately 1724 to 1735, it was built by Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost (c1680-1759) for the recently finished Town Church.

Although there is no record that J.S. Bach ever visited Waltershausen and its distance from Leipzig (ca. 185 km/114 miles) is substantial, it is easy to imagine that he would have paused there either on his trip to Kassel in September 1732 or his journey to Mühlhausen in June 1735 in order to experience firsthand the recently (or nearly) completed instrument. T.H.G. Trost subsequently built the organ for the Court Church (Schloßkirche) in Altenburg, an instrument J.S. Bach played and praised in September 1739.

T.H.G. Trost was originally contracted in 1722 to build a two-manual organ. After a visit that year to Freiberg to see the Silbermann organ in the cathedral, however, he evidently expanded his plans. His new design necessitated the lowering of the church’s first balcony to accommodate the instrument’s great height. An experimenter and innovator, T.H.G. Trost's bold ideas often led to cost overruns and friction with his employers. He seems to have left Waltershausen in 1730, well before the organ was completed. Further work continued until 1754/1755.

Literature: Organs.
Source: Robert L. Marshall & Traute M. Marshall: Exploring the World of J.S. Bach - A Traveller's Guide (University of Illinois Press, 2016), pp 188-189

Events in Life History of J.S. Bach: See above.

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

Bach Festivals & Cantata Series: None.

Features of Interest

Stadtkirche "Zur Gotteshilfe" (Town Church "By The Help Of God"): The building (erected 1719-1723) is the oldest Baroque central-plan church, The exterior is designed as a short Greek cross, executed in warm, reddish local sandstone. The form embodies the ideals of Protestant church architecture by ensuring that all parishioners are close to the minister, who faces the entire congregation from the front of the sanctuary. It is a major precursor and perhaps the direct model for the Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) in Dresden. The altar, the pulpit, and the organ are stacked vertically to represent the integration of sacrament, word, and music. Three levels of balconies curve around the entire interior of the slightly elliptical church, interrupted only by the organ. A special court balcony is located at the rear. The ceiling, seemingly a cupola, is in fact a flat surface so fashioned as to depict the sky opening up to reveal the Trinity in glory.

Schloss Tenneberg (Tenneberg Castle): is the remainder of a medieval spur castle of the Thuringian Landgraves, built in 1150, which served as a hunting lodge and auxiliary residence of the Dukes of Gotha through multiple conversions and is currently used as a museum. The castle is located on the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest in the town of Waltershausen, in the district of Gotha in Thuringia. Since 2007, the museum in the castle has been offering permanent exhibitions on the topics of town history, folklore, bourgeois living, the history of the Waltershuppen puppet and toy industry and the architecture of the Baroque rooms. The history and culture of the town all neatly packaged into one place. Schloss Tennenberg also hosts meetings, concerts, and literary readings.

Salzmannschule (Salzmann School): Established in 1784, this unique gymnasium specializes in teaching languages (English, Latin, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, French, Spanish, Russian - all by native speakers). Wow, that’s a whole lotta stuff!

Historic Rathaus (Town Hall): a timber framed structure built in 1441. Only the Klaustor gate is older which made its appearance in 1390.

Source: My German City Website; German Wikipedia Website (April 2018)

Information & Links

Waltershausen (Wikipedia) [English]
Waltershausen (Wikipedia) [German[
Schloss Tenneberg (Wikipedia) [German]
Waltershausen (Official Website) [German]
Waltershausen - Toy Making Town In The Thuringian Forest (My German City) [English]

Prepared by Aryeh Oron (April 2018)