Welcome!
We, the Bach-Archiv Leipzig – the central research institution for Bach – had a dream: an information platform dedicated to J.S.Bach–reliable, entertaining, and soon also multilingual. Thanks to private donations, the project has begun: A multimedia Calendarium documenting Bach’s life story.


Let the timeline lead you through Bach’s biography. Discover events in and during Bach’s life. Read and listen to Bach’s letters or the famous discussions of his superiors about the “incorrigible” Cantor of the St. Thomas Church. And take a look at Bach’s handwritten documents, ‘borrowed’ from “Bach digital”.

We have excellent partners for this Calendarium: The J.S. Bach-Foundation St. Gallen is offering videos of their ongoing recordings of the complete cantata works. And Germany’s number 1 cultural radio station, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, is giving us exclusive permission to offer individual segments from their ongoing broadcast series (since 2015) “Universum JSB” – an audio biography about J.S. Bach – to listen to in our media library. The Bach quotes, recorded here by these wonderful actors, are also featured in the Calendarium. The translations into English and Spanish are a work in progress and will be added to gradually.

Enjoy immersing yourself in Bach’s life!

                                                     The Bach-Archiv researchers