| Veit Bach | |
| Other Names: | Veit Bach |
| Birth Name: | Vitus Bach |
| Birth Date: | c. 1550 or 1555 |
| Birth Place: | Pozsony (?) Kingdom of Hungary |
| Death Date: | 8 March 1619 |
| Death Place: | Wechmar |
| Children: | Johannes Bach I |
Vitus "Veit" Bach (around 1550 Pozsony ? Kingdom of Hungary – 8 March 1619, Wechmar)[1] was a German baker and miller who, according to Johann Sebastian Bach, founded the Bach family, which became one of the most important families in musical history.
Veit's son, Johannes Bach I (ca. 1580–1626), was the grandfather of Johann Ambrosius Bach, J.S. Bach's father, Veit therefore being Johann Sebastian's great-great-grandfather. There are other theories which hold that a different Veit Bach who died before 1578 in Erfurt was the father of Johann(es)/Hans, and was thus Johann Sebastian's great-great-grandfather.[2]
Evading religious persecution in the Kingdom of Hungary, then under the control of the staunchly Roman Catholic Habsburgs, Bach, being a Protestant, settled in Wechmar, a village in the German state of Thuringia. His descendants continued to live there until Christoph Bach, grandfather of J. S. Bach, moved to Erfurt to take up a position as municipal musician or Stadtpfeifer (town piper). Bach's son Johannes Bach studied music with the town's head piper.