Bach composed this cantata for the wedding of Johann Heinrich Wolff and Susanna Regina Hempel. Susanna was the daughter of a customs official, and came from Zittau; her husband came from Leipzig, where the work was first performed on 5 February 1728. The text was written by Picander, who published it in his collection Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte. Picander refers to the bride and groom by the rivers of their respective cities (the "Pleißenstadt" of the title is Leipzig, the city on the river Pleiße).
