Bach House Eisenach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685 into a family that had supplied musicians to the region for generations. The Bachhaus opened in 1907 as the first museum devoted to him, in a house long believed to be his birthplace; research has since shown the birth house was elsewhere, and the museum states this plainly. Its collection includes around four hundred instruments, and a live demonstration is given roughly every hour on historic keyboards including a clavichord, harpsichord, spinet and organ, which is what most visitors come for. A modern extension of 2007 holds a room where recordings play in a seated installation.

History

The Bach family worked as musicians across Thuringia from the first half of the 16th century to the end of the 18th, and Johann Christoph Bach became organist of St George's in Eisenach in 1665; Johann Ambrosius Bach became the town's music director in 1671 and in 1674 bought a house in the Fleischgass, about 100 metres north of today's museum, which no longer stands. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on 21 March 1685, baptised two days later in St George's, spent his first 10 years here and attended the Latin school from 1692 until 1695. The museum house itself is one of the oldest homes in Eisenach, two buildings of 1456 and 1458 joined around 1611, whose ground floor once served as a barn and stables, as a cowbell of 1688 found in the garden recalls (Wikipedia, Bach House (Eisenach)).

What's there

• The hourly demonstration - historic keyboards played live to visitors.
• The instrument collection - around four hundred pieces, many playable.
• The corrected attribution - a museum that states it is not the birth house.
• The listening room - a seated installation of recorded works.

When to go

Year-round; demonstrations run roughly hourly through the day and are the main reason to time a visit. Bach festival events fall in spring.

Before you go

The building is not actually Bach's birthplace, as the museum says. Demonstrations are short and in German. It closes on a few holidays.

Nearby

The Wartburg stands above the town; the Drachenschlucht is south.

Key facts