The "Old Weigh House" with one of the towers of St Andreas in the background.
JS Bach never visited Braunschweig (as far as we know) but he walked from his home in Erfurt to Lüneburg to continue his musical education, and from there walked to Hamburg and Lübeck to visit Dietrich Buxtehude, an organist and composer, whose playing and compositions was much admired by Bach.
This brings me to the tenuous connection between Bach and Braunschweig, because one of the works performed at the Friday evening recital was Buxtehude`s "Prelude in D Major." It is not a work with which I am familiar, but I´m sure Bach heard this music, and I could hear where Bach may have found some of his compositional ideas.
Modern stained glass windows in the nave.
The church was severely damaged in the last war, and the modern church must be a shadow of its former medieval glory. The "Old Weigh House" in the photo above was completely destroyed in 1944, and the modern replica, built by traditional methods, was rebuilt from 1991 to 1994, and now houses a school.
The modern organ on which Rüdiger Wilhelm played several short works, and also the cantata "Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott" by JS Bach, BWV 651
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