New Bach monument in Leipzig

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The New Bach Monument in front of the Thomaskirche

The New Bach Monument in Leipzig is located on the Thomaskirchhof south of the Thomaskirche instead of the Leibniz monument that was located there from 1883 to 1906 .

history

The base relief shows the St. Thomas Church behind the old St. Thomas School

Already in 1885, on the occasion of Bach's 200th birthday, thought was given to a second memorial for the Thomaskantor . But it was not until 1894, after the renovation work began on St. John's Church , the rediscovery and overbuilding of Bach's grave and the identification of his skull by Carl Seffner in collaboration with the anatomist Wilhelm His (1831–1904), the projects became more concrete. The bones were buried together with those of the poet Christian Fürchtegott Gellert in the newly created Bach Gellert crypt in the sanctuary of the St. John's Church and two bronze tablets were set into the church floor. There was already an epitaph for Gellert showing his bust to the right of the altar. Therefore, a monument to Bach created by Seffner was to be erected on the left side of the altar. - Later the plan for a Bach monument in the Johanniskirche was given up; the statue originally planned by Seffner was reduced to a bust for cost reasons. A fierce dispute about the location had been going on since 1899, in which, in addition to the St. John's Church, various locations at the St.

In the years 1901/1902 5,000 gold marks were taken from the estate of the Leipzig merchant Franz Dominic Grassi for the new Bach monument. The dispute about the location was finally decided in 1906 in favor of the Thomaskirchhof: the Leibniz monument there was to be moved to the Paulinerhof of the university. The new Bach monument was unveiled on May 17, 1908 (Sunday cantata ) as the highlight of a three-day Bach festival organized by the Leipzig Bach Association, founded in 1875, as part of a festive church service. Privy Councilor Adolph Wach, chairman of the committee for the construction of the monument since 1897, gave the speech. The total cost of 50,000 gold marks was borne half by the city of Leipzig and half by private donors, so Lord Mayor Carl Bruno Tröndlin also placed the monument under the protection of the city for the inauguration.

Today the monument stands exactly in front of the Bach window of the St. Thomas Church created in 1895 by Karl de Bouché from Munich . The colored glass window donated by the widow of the city councilor Simon in memory of her husband, who died in 1882, and which was originally located further to the west, was moved to its current location during the restoration carried out in 1974 by the Leipzig glass painter Rolf Stokinger.

layout

On a 3.20 m high shell limestone plinth, which was designed by the Leipzig architect and city planning officer Otto Wilhelm Scharenberg and bears the name of the recipient, is a 2.45 m high bronze statue, designed by the Leipzig sculptor Carl Seffner and made by the company Noack & Brückner was cast. It shows the Thomaskantor standing in front of an organ (admittedly completely ahistorically decorated in Art Nouveau), his right hand, embracing a piano roll, raised to conduct, the left hand just released from the organ manual - in the middle of work. The long state coat is open; the jacket is only partially buttoned. On the back of the organ there is a bas-relief that shows the old Thomas School seen from the west.

Postage stamps

The new Bach monument is shown on two German postage stamps. In the spring of 1985 it was the motif of the 10 pfennig value as part of the GDR special stamps that were issued for the Leipzig trade fair . In addition, in 2004, the € 0.40 value was one of the last motifs in Deutsche Post AG's permanent reel brand series »Sights« .

  • GDR postage stamp, 1985

  • Postage stamp from the Sights series , 2004

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The architectural and art monuments of Saxony. City of Leipzig. The sacred buildings. Volume 1, edited by Heinrich Magirius u. Hanna-Lore Fiedler, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1995, p. 250 f., ISBN 3-422-00568-4

literature

  • Markus Cottin et al .: Leipzig monuments. Edited by the Leipziger Geschichtsverein e. V., Sax-Verlag, Beucha 1998, pp. 120 f., ISBN 3-930076-71-3 .
  • Wolfgang Hocquel: Leipzig. Architecture from the Romanesque to the present. Leipzig 2001.
  • Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. Leipzig 2005.

Web links

Commons : Neues Bachdenkmal  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 20.8 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 21.5 ″  E