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Secondary sourceArtifact

Zimmermannsches Caffeehaus

Johann Georg Schreiber

An engraving of the Leipzig coffee house where Bach directed public concerts of his Collegium Musicum.

This coffee house was where Bach directed the public concerts of his Collegium Musicum from 1729.

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Black and white engraving of a multi-story Baroque-style building facade with ornate dormers, arched ground-floor entrances, a hanging sign with an eagle, and street scene with pedestrians, a horse-drawn carriage, and a sedan chair.
Johann Georg Schreiber, engraving of Zimmermann's Coffee-House, Leipzig (detail).

About this source

What it is

This is an engraving by Johann Georg Schreiber showing Zimmermann's Coffee House in Leipzig, a multi-story Baroque building with a busy street scene in front of it.

Why it matters

From 1729 this coffee house was the meeting place for Bach's Collegium Musicum, a group he directed that gave public concerts outside of his church duties. The image helps show the everyday urban setting of Bach's musical life in Leipzig, beyond the churches he is usually associated with.

Look closer

  • What details in the street scene tell you about everyday life in 18th-century Leipzig?
  • Why might an artist choose to engrave a coffee house rather than a church or palace?
  • What can't this image tell you about what actually happened inside the building?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Johann Sebastian Bach on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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