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Description: |
J.S. Bach did not die a poor man. Nevertheless, his wife Anna Magdalena Bach is said to have become impoverished immediately after his death, was dependent on financial support from outside the family and died abandoned in abject poverty. That's how it is often read. If that's true, why didn't her husband appoint her as sole heir? Was he indifferent to her fate? Why wasn't she supported by the adult children?
Eberhard Spree pursues these questions in the present publication, for which he evaluated numerous sources and opened up documents previously unknown to Bach research.
At the beginning of the research there was an interest in a part of the mine that J.S. Bach owned at the end of his life. Documents in the Bergarchiv Freiberg, in which his name is mentioned several times and which were previously unknown, provide more detailed information about his commitment to the Ursula Erbstolln in this regard. After his death, his heirs, including his widow, took over this part of the mine. They weren't obliged to do that. Nor should they have supported this silver mine financially, which they did. This contradicts the thesis that Anna Magdalena Bach became impoverished immediately after the death of her husband and hardly had the financial means to survive on a daily basis.
Findings about this part of the mine entailed dealing with the division of inheritance and the behavior of the widow. From this, further questions arose. Is there evidence that she contributed to her livelihood and that of her children through her own activities? Was that perhaps even expected of her? Were there any contacts with members of your family who lived abroad or did they not care about your fate?
Answered questions repeatedly created the conditions for new questions. This required mining research, dealing with inheritance law and the search for further knowledge about the position and possibilities of the widow Anna Magdalena Bach in early modern society. The results of this research have been summarized in this publication, which contains numerous illustrations of historical documents and provides impressive insights into society in the mid-18th century and questions some persistently circulated judgments and assessments in relation to the Bach family. |
