Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen

In Köthen Bach had climbed the highest rung of the career ladder. As Kapellmeister of the young music-loving Prince Leopold, he was able to develop musically freely between 1717 and 1723 within an artistically stimulating environment. At the same time, Köthen gave him the most severe blow of his life: his first wife Maria Barbara died there in 1720. In the following year he married the court singer Anna Magdalena.