The history of the Leipzig Bach Archive

The Bach Archive in Leipzig was founded on November 20, 1950, on the 200th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death. The aim was to centrally record the extensive source material on Bach's life and work and to collect the valuable, widely scattered collection of music manuscripts in small-format photographs and photographs – on the one hand as a safeguard against loss, and on the other hand to make work easier for Bach researchers. In the following decades, the institution developed into a world-renowned research center, which has also successfully established itself as the organizer of the annual Leipzig Bach Festival, introduced in 1999 on behalf of the city of Leipzig.

In its home, the historic Bosehaus opposite Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, the Bach Archive Leipzig houses not only a research institute with a library, but also a museum of current standards with 450m² of exhibition space. Several special exhibitions per year and numerous museum educational programs are realized here, as well as its own chamber music series in the baroque summer hall of the building. In addition, the International Bach Competition and, since 1999, the annual Bach Festival Leipzig are organized by the Bach Archive Leipzig.

The initiator and long-time director of the institution, Werner Neumann, had suggested establishing the archive at Bach's main place of activity at the time and successfully persuaded the city of Leipzig and the then state of Saxony to do so. Under the adverse conditions of the post-war period, the archive was first housed in the Old Town Hall and then, from 1951, in the Gohliser Schlösschen. With its integration into the newly founded “National Research and Memorial Sites of J. S. Bach of the GDR” in 1979, the Bach Archive lost its independence and became a department of this institution. In 1985, it moved to the historic Bosehaus in Thomaskirchhof. After the political change, the institution was restructured and, in 1992, under the direction of Prof. Hans-Joachim Schulze, it returned to its old name and original objectives.

In addition to the originally intended collection and preservation of sources on the life and work of the Thomaskantor, the realization of a new complete edition of Bach's works was also undertaken. This led to a close and, in those days, unusual scientific collaboration with the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen, which continued throughout the Cold War and came to a successful conclusion after reunification with the publication of the 103rd volume in 2007.

In addition, in cooperation with the Packard Humanities Institute in California, the Saxon Academy of Sciences, and the German Research Foundation, the operas of Bach's sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel were edited, and Johann Sebastian Bach's original manuscripts were scanned as part of the “Bach Digital” project and made available to music lovers via the internet.

Since becoming a foundation in 1998, there have been numerous obvious innovations and developments. The following year, the first Bach Festival Leipzig organized by the Bach Archive was held, and the archive was designated an affiliated institute of the University of Leipzig, including a commitment to training suitable young academics. Following the comprehensive renovation and expansion of the Bosehaus, the Bach Museum Leipzig was reopened in March 2010 by the then Federal President Horst Köhler, under worldwide observation. From 2001 onwards, Bach researcher Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Wolff served as director of the foundation. The musicologist tracked down numerous Bach sources that were considered lost at the time and published the most comprehensive modern Bach biography to date in 2000, which is available in more than ten languages. Christoph Wolff also held a full-time professorship at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Peter Wollny, the current director of the institution, succeeded Christoph Wolff in 2014. Wollny has published numerous works on the Bach family and the history of music in the 17th and 18th centuries. Since 1995, he has also taught regularly at the universities of Leipzig and Dresden and has held teaching positions at Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Music in Weimar. The current president of the foundation is Dutch organist, harpsichordist, conductor, and musicologist Prof. Ton Koopman.

Visitors to the Bach Archive complex in Leipzig will find a comprehensive range of information about the famous composer. While leading figures in international Bach research and interpretation study autograph sources in the library and kindergarten groups do crafts in the museum's educational area, interested tourists browse for musically inspired souvenirs in the Bach Museum shop.