Bach To The Future

Master mason Malecki walked into St Thomas Church, Leipzig on 28th July 1949 and uttered those immortal words to church Superintendent Heinrich Schumann: “Hello there, Superintendent. I bring (you) Bach.”

The remains of the musical maestro, Johann Sebastian Bach, originally identified by anatomy expert Professor Wilhelm in 1894, were on the back of Herr Malecki’s handcart in an open zinc casket.

They were being reinterred after a decision to move them from the crypt at St John’s church following a 1943 bombing raid by the Allies.

Now, they take pride of place under a bronze plate in the choir at St Thomas’s in Leipzig, Saxony, and, in some ways, that is where the story of Germany’s ‘City of Music’ starts, finishes or continues depending on your perspective...