Oberkirche, Arnstadt

Bach Church is the common name of a Protestant parish church in Arnstadt, Thuringia, Germany. It was officially named Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Kirche in 1935 because of its association with the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. It was in this church that Bach played a harpsichord concerto after working for Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar for 7 months. A church on the premises named after St. Boniface burned down in 1581. A new church was built from 1676 to 1683 and simply named Neue Kirche (New church). It is a Baroque hall church with three tiers on all sides. The organ builder Johann Friedrich Wender from Mühlhausen built from 1699 to 1703 on the third tier of the church an organ with two manuals and 21 stops. It was inspected in June 1703 by Johann Sebastian Bach, then 18 years old, who was hired afterwards for the post of the organist at the church, his first position as an organist. He was succeeded in 1707 by his cousin Johann Ernst Bach who held the post to 1728. The organ was changed and restored several times. A replica of the organ was installed in the church of Pontaumur, Auvergne, which is used also for a regional Bach festival, Bach en Combrailles.

Arnstadt (German pronunciation: [ˈarnʃtat] ) is a town in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, on the river Gera about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. Arnstadt is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia, and has a well-preserved historic centre with a partially preserved town wall. The town is nicknamed Das Tor zum Thüringer Wald ("The Gateway to the Thuringian Forest") because of its location on the northern edge of that forest. Arnstadt has a population of approximately 27,000.

The Liebfrauenkirche (pronounced [liːpˈfʁaʊn̩ˌkɪʁçə], "Church of Our Lady") in the Thuringian town of Arnstadt, Germany, is a Lutheran parish church. The basilica, which was essentially erected in the 12th and 13th centuries, is considered, along with Naumburg Cathedral (now in Saxony-Anhalt), to be the most important church building of the transitional phase from Romanesque to Gothic architecture in Thuringia.

Arnstadt Hauptbahnhof or Arnstadt Central Station is a railway station in the town of Arnstadt in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the meeting point of the Erfurt-Schweinfurt, Arnstadt–Saalfeld and Arnstadt-Ichtershausen lines.

Jonastal (Jonas Valley), situated in the Ilm-Kreis district in Germany between Crawinkel and Arnstadt and near to the town of Ohrdruf, was a scene of military construction under the National Socialist regime during the last years of the Second World War. Thousands of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp under the command of SS General Hans Kammler were forced to dig 25 tunnels into the surrounding mountain and the whole operation was performed under the strictest secrecy. The site was not completed and construction was abandoned before the end of the war. The exact aim of the operation remains uncertain although it is now believed to have been either a potential final headquarters for the führer Adolf Hitler, a military communications post or a possible center for V-2 rocket and Wunderwaffe weapon production and research. The latter is given some credence by the fact that SS General Hans Kammler was in overall charge of the construction efforts. Ohrdruf, its forced labour camp and the nearby Jonas Valley were captured by American troops on April 4, 1945, by the 4th Armored Division and the 89th Infantry Division. The camp was the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by the U.S. Army.At the end of the war, the Soviet Army, which took over the site from the Americans, immediately classified it as a restricted zone and then used it as a military training ground. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the site was taken over by the German armed forces who continue to use the area.

Amt Wachsenburg is a municipality in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. The municipality is named after the Wachsenburg Castle which is located in its center. It was formed on 31 December 2012 from the former municipalities Wachsenburggemeinde and Ichtershausen. The former municipality Kirchheim was merged into Amt Wachsenburg in January 2019, and Rockhausen in December 2019. It consists of the villages Bechstedt-Wagd, Bittstädt, Eischleben, Haarhausen, Holzhausen, Ichtershausen, Kirchheim, Rehestädt, Rockhausen, Röhrensee, Sülzenbrücken, Thörey and Werningsleben.

Dornheim is a municipality in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. The main attraction is the village church where the composer Johann Sebastian Bach was married in 1707.

Ichtershausen is a village and a former municipality in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 31 December 2012, it is part of the municipality Amt Wachsenburg.

Thörey is a village near Ichtershausen in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, with about 250 inhabitants. It is part of the municipality Amt Wachsenburg.

Wachsenburggemeinde is a former municipality in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. The municipality was named after the Wachsenburg Castle which is located in its center. It consisted of the five villages named Bittstädt, Haarhausen, Holzhausen, Röhrensee, and Sülzenbrücken. Since 31 December 2012, it is part of the municipality Amt Wachsenburg.

Wipfra is a river of Thuringia, Germany. It flows into the Gera near Eischleben.

Plaue (Thür) station is a junction station in the town of Plaue in the German state of Thuringia. It lies at the junction of the Erfurt–Würzburg and Erfurt–Ilmenau(–Themar) railways. The line is double-track towards Erfurt, but the lines towards Würzburg and Ilmenau are single-track. Originally the section in the Brandleite Tunnel between the stations of Gehlberg and Oberhof line to Würzburg was double-track. After the Second World War, the second track of the section of the Neudietendorf–Meiningen on the line in the Brandleite Tunnel between the stations of Gehlberg and Oberhofon was dismantled for reparations to the Soviet Union. At the beginning of the 1980s, the heavily used Neudietendorf–Plaue railway was redoubled and electrification was extended to Arnstadt, but the overhead wire was dismantled after the reunification of Germany. The planned further electrification failed because the GDR was not able to build a power station to supply the railway. Freight operations at Plaue station ended in the 1970s. The siding to Dosdorf brickyard was also closed and dismantled during this time. Shunting operations were discontinued in the 1980s and the tracks to the freight shed were dismantled. However, it was still possible to consign even bulky goods on DR. These were loaded into wagons attached to passenger trains. From the 1990s onwards, the railway tracks were rebuilt several times. Of the original ten tracks in the station, only three now exist. The station is located in the east of the town centre between Plaue and Kleinbreitenbach. It has three platforms: platform 1 is used by trains to Würzburg, platform 2 is used by trains to Erfurt and platform 3 is used by trains to Ilmenau, Würzburg and Erfurt. Platforms 2 and 3 are accessible via an underpass. The following services serve Plaue station: RE 7 (Mainfranken-Thüringen-Express) Erfurt Hbf–Arnstadt Hbf–Plaue–Suhl–Schweinfurt–Würzburg Hbf (every 120 minutes) STB 4 Erfurt Hbf–Arnstadt Hbf–Plaue–Suhl–Meiningen (every 120 minutes) EIB 3 Erfurt Hbf–Arnstadt Hbf–Ilmenau (every 60 minutes)The EIB 3 and STB 4 services run from Erfurt to Plaue are coupled and are separated at the station. The STB and EIB services are operated with Stadler Regio-Shuttle diesel railcar and the RE service is operated with Bombardier RegioSwinger diesel multiple units. The station was built in 1879 when the railway line from Arnstadt to Ilmenau was built. The Würzburg line was added in 1884. The station was restored in 2005 during the development of the Erfurt–Würzburg railway for 140 km/h and tilting technology. The station building was privatised in 2012 and has been reused as a student residence with 20 apartments.