If you’ve heard plenty of classical music, then you will undoubtedly hear Johann Sebastian Bach (or just simply JS Bach for short) and his music. Although he was not born in Leipzig, he actually moved around quite a bit until he settled in Leipzig which was a small German country at the time, Saxony, until later it allied with Prussia and eventually became part of Germany. Unfortunately, he was not well-known during his time and like many artists and composers, he became more famous as time went on as people found more and more of his work. His grave was actually unmarked for many years until it was supposedly relocated and moved to the church he used to be play in. Who knows if they are his remains… or not?
Known as St. Thomas Church or Bachkirche (Bach’s Church) is where Jean Sebastian Bach used to play, teach, and compose in his later years at Leipzig.
One section of the inside of St. Thomas Church. The metal slab on the ground by the yellow flowers is JS Bach’s supposedly final burial site after moving it from an unmarked grave.
This church is surprisingly bigger than expected.
A statue of JS Bach – his house which is also now a museum is near this church.
Like many other German cities that suffered heavy bombing and fighting during World War II, there is not much to see in Leipzig as many buildings and other amazing things of note were lost to the explosions and war fighting. Of course, with the famous composer JS Bach’s house and church being in Leipzig, the most hated football team in the Bundesliga is also located in the same city: RB Leipzig, the football club. The problem with Leipzig is like other cities in Europe, it got bombed quite a bit so you gotta find something else to do. As I stated before, visit, explore, and watch a football game!
It’s a nice day for a RB Leipzig game in Leipzig. The nice thing about this stadium is that it’s close to the city center…. until of course, they build a new one in several years.
Many people including myself thought that RB meant Red Bull because the team is supported by the Red Bull Drink Company. Instead, RB actually means Rasenball (lawn ball) so its full name is Rasenball Sport Leipzig, all in order to get around the corporate influencing that Bundesliga has forbidden teams from doing so. Hell, their stadium is called Red Bull Arena which is a complete and obvious takeover by commercial interests. Their history was been called shady by many football purists as the Red Bull company tried to do a commercial sponsorship with various football clubs around Germany but it was more than that. They wanted to invade it and input their own commercialization of the team.
As I turn my head, the opposing team’s fans were lighting up flares. Apparently, they are allowed to do so in these games!
Wearing number 11, Timo Werner is in the middle of the picture. He is considered one of the best strikers in Germany.
So instead of taking over a big name club, the company went into partnership with a small, local club called SSV Markranstädt and then later rebranded the colors, name, team, stadium, history, and everything to make it a powerhouse football club in a matter of several years. In my opinion, despite the break from tradition, I think it’s a good thing that the team became a powerhouse in the Bundesliga because very few teams in Germany can actually challenge Bayern Munich, the lone top dog. I think you need to have good rivals like the La Liga giants of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid so you don’t become complacent. Bayern so far has not done that great in the past 10 years as they’ve won 1 Champions League in contrast to Real and Barca have won the last 7 out of the last 10 years.