On Michaelisplatz, the Bach monument shows Beethoven's quote "Not Bach, but the sea should be his name". It was forged by pupils from the neighboring Michaelisschule and combines numerous allegories of Bach's music with the history of the city.

Ohrdruf is the smallest of all the Bach towns and yet, in addition to the five-year stay of the young Johann Sebastian, it can look back on a Bach tradition of over 170 years. Johann Sebastian Bach's brother Johann Christoph, who took up the post of organist at St. Michael's Church in 1690 and was highly regarded there as a musician, is considered the founder of the Ohrdruf Bach family.