Kulturbetrieb Arnstadt

The premises of the exhibition show paintings of the Count and later Prince Anton Günther II of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt who ruled from 1681-1716, his wife Auguste Dorothea and other personalities from the political and scientific life around 1700 in Arnstadt. Main focus of the exhibition is the period from 1703 to 1704, when Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Arnstadt. Facsimiles of documents on Bach's organ samples, his employment contract, protocols of his interrogation before the consistory, salary receipts and a family tree of the Bach family in Arnsatdt invite the visitors to sojourn. At listening stations sound samples of Johann Sebastian Bach’s work are played. A model displays the new Church, as Bach must have seen it.    

The organ console built in 1703 and the following models from 1864 and 1903 are some of the most important exhibits of the Bach exhibition. The exhibition is enriched by an old baroque trombone and a bass dulcian, a replica of the company MOECK. The trumpet was one of the most common instruments of the Town Musicians of the 16th to 18th Century. A dulcian is an early form of the bassoon, which was played by Caspar Bach. At the end, the visitor learns interesting facts about Bach reception in Arnstadt.