Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22 Weimar did not dismiss him and arrested him for disobedience. He was released on 2 December 1717. In Köthen, Bach found an employer who was an enthusiastic musician himself. The court was Calvinist, therefore Bach's work from this period was mostly secular, including the orchestral suites, the cello suites, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the "Brandenburg Concertos". He composed secular cantatas for the court for occasions such as New Year's Day and the prince's birthday, including . He later parodied some of them as church cantatas without major changes, for example . Bach composed his cantata as
Province of Brandenburg the Bear, another Saxon count from the noble House of Ascania, who established the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157. His son Margrave Otto I already achieved the dignity of an Arch-Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire in 1177. Emperor Charles IV by the Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed the electoral dignity of the Brandenburg margraves and in 1373 assigned the electorate to his son Wenceslaus in 1373. The Elector of Brandenburg held the seventh rank among the electors of the Empire and had five votes in the Council of Princes. In 1415 Brandenburg was acquired by Burgrave Frederick of Nuremberg,