Two of Leipzig’s most important churches, quite different in style, are linked in many ways, not least by a quarter century when Johann Sebastian Bach was Thomas-kantor, official music director for the two Protestant churches, as well as two smaller ones.
During those years, 1723 to 1750, these two churches were the main venues for premieres of some of his most important works; the Nikolaikirche, seen above, saw the first performance of the St. John Passion.
The church, dedicated to St Nicholas, patron of travelers, was first built in 1165 in Romanesque style, then rebuilt in the 1500s with Gothic styling and twin towers, and then again in 1730 with Baroque elements, including the present tower.
It’s one of the city’s largest churches, and in the late 1980s it became known as a center of quiet resistance to East Germany’s government, with weekly Monday demonstrations in its pews.
When I visited, I was startled by the ceilings, which are unlike any I’ve seen in a German church (or nearly anywhere else). The closest similarity I could find was far away, in Antoni Gaudi’s columns in Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica. I wonder if he had visited Leipzig!
The St Thomas Church, or Thomaskirche, is not as old, but sits on foundations that predate the present church, which was built in 1537—and its boys’ choir, still a leading group, dates to 1212. It was built in Baroque style, but Bach would probably not recognize it; in the late 1800s its interior style was hurled back in time to look Gothic.
Bach’s tomb is in the church, which was his principal workplace in Leipzig, but that’s relatively recent; they were moved to the church in 1949 from another church that was not rebuilt after wartime destruction. The Thomaskirche was also seriously damaged, but rebuilt.
The Thomaskirche’s first celebrity was not Bach, but Martin Luther, who preached in the new church in 1539, only two years after it opened. It also has other musical connections, including to Wagner and Mendelssohn. Wagner was baptized in the church, and studied piano with the Thomaskantor of his time.
The Thomaskirche organ also has hosted famous names; on May 12, 1789, the guest organist was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, two years before his death.
