Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Weimar to Bad Sulza

Route from Weimar to Bad Sulza

Weimar is a city rich in historical heritage. In 1988 UNESCO listed Weimar as a "World Heritage Site". And, while Bach spent ten years here, longer than any where else other than Leipzig, he is not the town's most prominent luminary, nor even it's most honored musician.

Weimar is best known for its authors - Goethe, Friedrich Schiller (Ode to Joy), and Friedrich Neitzche, the Bauhaus art movement, and the Weimar Republic.

Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969). Its core objective was a radical concept: to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. Gropius explained this vision for a union of art and design in the Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919), which described a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression. Gropius developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this new system of living.

The Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic was Germany’s government from 1919 to 1933, the period after World War I until the rise of Nazi Germany. It was named after the town of Weimar where Germany’s new government was formed by a national assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated. From its uncertain beginnings to a brief season of success and then a devastating depression, the Weimar Republic experienced enough chaos to position Germany for the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Bach Connection

At age 17, Bach took a position in Weimar as "court musician" to Duke Johann Ernst. However, a scant six months later he left for a position in Arnstadt. Five years later he returned as court organist and concertmaster and remained for nine years. During this period, Bach wrote most of his organ works. Towards the end of 1716 Bach's relationship with Duke Wilhelm Ernst  had begun to sour, no doubt owing to the fact that Bach had been passed over for the position of kapellmeister. After aggressively seeking release from his position, Bach was actually imprisoned for a month. He likely conceived of and planned his Well-Tempered Clavier during this time. Eventually, he was given a "dishonorable discharge" by Duke Wilhelm Ernst and in Dec. 1717 moved to his new position in Kothen.


Coffee Cantata (BWV 221).


City Castle

Two of Bach's most illustrious sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Phillip Emmanuel, were born and baptized in Weimar at the Church 

Lunch at the castle...statues

City Castle

Later in the afternoon we resumed our bike ride to Bad Sulza. Enroute we came upon a grove of cherry trees and decided to treat ourselves to the freshest cherries I've ever eaten.

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