Leipzig ( Lipsk in Sorabe) is a city-district of Germany, the North-West of the Land of Saxony. With more: 500000 inhabitants (Lipsiens), it is the first city of Saxony, exceeding little Dresden, the political capital of the free State.

Geography

It is located at the confluence of the Pleisse, the white Elster and the Parthian. At the end of the Second world war, its Population reached: 750000 inhabitants, it counts some exactly: 500000 in 2006.

It is close to other German big cities like Halle ( 30km in the North-West ), Chemnitz ( approximately 70 km in the south ), Dresden ( approximately 100 km in south-east ), Erfurt (approximately 100 km in south-west ), Magdeburg ( approximately 100 km in the North-West ) and Berlin ( approximately 145 km in north ). Leipzig is located at équidistance of three regional capital, Erfurt, Magdeburg and Dresden, which it however exceeds in population. Leipzig tends to be essential like an economic capital suprarégionale.

The culminating point of the city is the mount Monarchenhügel (159m). One can also raise in the southern part of the city Fockeberg (153m), artificial mount of the southern district of the city, created by the accumulation of engraved buildings destroyed by the bombardments combined during the second world war.

History

Medieval and modern history

The origins of the city go up towards 900 and the installation of a Slavic colony on banks the Parthian one. It is into 1015 that Leipzig is mentioned for the first time in the chronicle of Dithmar, bishop of Mersebourg. But the foundation of the city as such is in 1065 when the margrave Otto the rich person of Meißen granted the privilege to him to organize two annual markets ( Jahrmärkte ): the first at Easter, and the second with the Michaelmas.

The name Leipzig is resulting from the toponym Sorabe Lipsk which means “the place close to the limes”. For the Slavic people to which one allots the foundation of the city, the lime was a crowned tree. The Latin equivalent of the Toponyme is lipsia ; what explains why in French, the inhabitants of Leipzig are the Lipsiens .

In 1409 was founded the Université of Leipzig, the Alma MATER Lipsiensis , one of the oldest universities of Germany.

In 1497, the emperor Maximilien Ier will extend the privileges of (from now on three) walked annual, while making some of the imperial fairs; concretely, no city in a ray of approximately 115hm had the right to organize fairs. Strong of this right, the three fairs of Leipzig developed considerably until becoming most important of Germany at the 18th century preceding those of Francfort-sur-le-Main. They were the fairs of the New year, of Easter, and the Saint-Michel. At the 18th century, the fairs of Leipzig constituted a true commercial platform where were exchanged goods of Europe Western, central, and Eastern, Russian empire and even to Persia (via the Jewish merchants of Poland-Lithuania). At the 19th century, merchants of the United States visited the fairs regularly. The international character of the trade in Leipzig explains the presence (today still) of many consulates (the United States, Russia, France, Italy…).

Leipzig was the theater of the battles of the Nations in 1813. It was one of greatest confrontations of the Napoleonean wars, (opponent: 190000 French and Saxons with: 330000 Prussians, Russians, Swede, Austrians) and a defeat for the emperor of the French.

Modern history

Crossroads of communication, it was pionnière at the time of the advent of the Railroad, with the construction, in 1839, of a first line until the longest Dresden then in Germany and the construction of the station Bayrischer Bahnhof , oldest in Europe, terminus of the connection with the Bavaria. Leipzig is today one of the rail junctions most important in Europe, its passanger, beginning station of the 20th century, is one of most important of Europe.

During the Second world war, Leipzig undergoes several air raids, more than 60% of the center town was destroyed and one counted: 6000 victims. April 18th, 1945, the troops étatsuniennes reached the city before withdrawing with the profit of the Red Army in accordance with the agreements make.

After the second world war, Leipzig was thus found in Soviet zone of occupation, then in the GDR of which it was the second city, after Berlin. In 1989, since the church Saint Nicolas's Day, the manifestations of Monday , with the cries of “We let us be the people”, precipitated the end of GDR. After the Reunification, Leipzig became a city of the free State ( Freistaat ) of Saxony.

April 12th, 1996 the new fairs of Leipzig were inaugurated, the pole of exposure and the most modern congress of Europe. Today, Leipzig is a university town, fairs. Convincing, it was indicated city-candidate of Germany, for the organization of OJ of 2012. In 2006, the Zentralstadion accommodated matches of the Football world cup of 2006 of which France - South Korea.

Administration

Districts

  • center : ( Stadtmitte ) historical, trading, alive (the day)

  • Südvorstadt and Connewitz : districts studying and alternate around the “ Karli ”, the “Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse”, North-South axis bordered of coffees, shops, small restaurants and kebabs.

  • Plagwitz , Schleussig and Lindenau : Western districts. Old reconverted districts indutriels. Residential.

  • Gohlis : the district of the splendid villas, for the great majority of them, recently restored.

  • Reudnitz and west

  • Grünau : the district mushroom at the western end of the city. Marked by the bars of buildings.

Municipal political life

Since 1994, the mayor, Oberbügermeister , chair the Stadtrat , municipal council. He is elected directly by the citizens (two turns). It is thus necessary to distinguish the election from the mayor and that of the municipal council, which do not take place at the same time.

In April 2005, Wolfgang Tiefensee is triumphantly re-elected mayor SPD as of the first turn with 67% of the voices! However, in November 2005, it agrees to enter to the government of great coalition of Angela Merkel, it is there federal minister for Transport, Construction and the urban Development.

The new elections in February 2006 see the victory of Burkhard Jung (SPD), elected with the second turn with 51,6%. It is necessary for him however to compose with an original municipal council: 19 seats with SPD, 19 PDS, 19 the CDU, 7 with the die Grünen.

National policy

The town of Leipzig covers two electoral constituencies: the 153e, Leipzig I, and the 154e, Leipzig II. Currently, the two deputies lipsiens of the Bundestag come from SPD.

Wolfgang Tiefensee, which was mayor of Leipzig, is since 2005, a federal minister for the government Merkel. It in 2002 had declined first once a ministerial position in the government of Gerhard Schröder. It is currently also responsible for the relative questions to new the Länder, i.e. those resulting from old East Germany.

It is interesting to note that at the time of the last elections (communal and European of 2004, regional and legislative in 2005) the districts of Leipzig mainly voted for candidates resulting from the parties of SPD or Left party (Germany) (ex-PDS); whereas the near total of Saxony remained anchored in the camp of the conservatives.

Twinning

Economy

The economic revival

Leipzig today finds an economic health with the recent installation of companies like Siemens, Porsche or BMW. Beside Francfort-sur-le-Main, Munich, and Stuttgart, Leipzig tends to becoming an important banking and financial center. With the autumn 2006 Amazon built there its greater German logistic center thus anticipating the removal of the intercontinental hub of the postal company DHL which will leave the airport of Brussels in 2008. That would have, according to DHL, to lead to the creation of: 3500 direct uses on the airport of Leipzig/Market.

Moreover, the fairs, which belong to the history and the identity of the city, take part in this economic revival. The fairs of Leipzig, confronted with a sharp national competition (fairs of Hanover, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf), successfully organize the international fair of the car, the Ranges Convention (larger living room of Europe of video games opened to the public), and the fair of the book (in spring), an event which gives place to many public readings and other cultural events downtown.

Media

MDR is one of the nine stations of the public grouping of German TV-broadcaster ARD. Its seat and the plates of television are located in Media-city of the south-east of the city. MDR, associated with the Länder of the Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and of the Thuringe creates and diffuse programs TVS, radios and has its own symphony orchestra and a chorus.

The Leipziger Volkszeitung was a newspaper of national importance for the labor movement. It is today the only local daily of Leipzig. The Kreuzer is a monthly magazine specialist in the culture, festivities and art in Leipzig.

Several private radios also emit from Leipzig, inter alia PSR, NRJ Sachsen, Mephisto 97,6, the radio academic…

Infrastructures

The station of Leipzig , inaugurated in 1915, is an important node in the transport of passengers. Departures of InterCityExpress every hour for Hamburg while passing by Berlin, for Munich via Nuremberg, for Francfort-sur-le-Main via Erfurt, and for Dresden.

The international airport Leipzig/Halle is located at the North-West of the city, directly connected to the networks highway and railway regional (and from 2015 to the lines high speed of the InterCityExpress

Several highways passes close to Leipzig. In North A14, the west A9, and the south A38. The three highways form a triangle around Leipzig and Halle.

The public transport are ensured since 1917 by the company LVB. They represent today 14 tram lines, 30 lines regular of bus (of which longest fact 22 km), like 4 lines of S-Bahn.

The City-Tunnel (work until 2011) will create a North-South railway axis under the center town, thus avoiding with the regional trains in direction of Plauen and Bitterfeld to have to circumvent the city. It is also question of making borrow this tunnel from ICE in direction of Munich. Four stations: Hauptbahnhof , Markt , Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz , Bayrischer Bahnhof .

Education and Culture

University

Founded in 1409, the Alma MATER Lipsiensis is regarded as the second older university of German language (after Vienna) which functioned without discontinuity. In 1953, in GDR, it took the name of University Karl Marx which it lost in 1991.

It counts today 14 faculties and more institute for close to: 35000 students. Y studied Nobel Prize like Werner Heisenberg, Gustav hertz, Nathan Söderblom and Wilhelm Wundt.

Among the other famous students, one can raise Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Goethe, Erich Kästner, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Karl Liebknecht, Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner…

The principal buildings of the university are currently in work according to the project of the Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat. The inauguration will coincide with the jubilee of the Alma MATER Lipsiensis (autumn 2009) ( to see architecture )

The college library is former to the university itself since it was founded in 1274. It found its exceptional site of Albertina, and has more than 6 million works, a collection of: 173000 parts and medals, of many portraits and charts, like some treasures like one of the 4 parts of the Codex Sinaiticus and a Bible printed by Gutenberg.

Universities

(we name here “university” Hochschule, i.e. a university establishment of row)

The music school and of theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” , founded in 1843, is the first great German musical institution.

The business school of Leipzig (HHL) founded on April 25th, 1898, is also the oldest university of trade of Germany.

The school of graphics and art of the book (HGB) is the third university of Leipzig, founded in 1764. Today 450 students are divided between four university courses: painting/graphics, art of the book/design, photography, and art of the media.

City of the edition

It is a city with great cultural tradition; creation, as of 1409, from the university will catalyze there the rise of the industry of the edition, devoted in 1912 by the installation of the German Bibliothèque. The latter will be integrated after the reunification into the institution the German Libraries (since 2007 German National library - DNB-) the equivalent of the National library of France. A German National library on three sites: Leipzig, Frankfurt and Berlin for the musical files. In 1894, it was the German Central Library for submission to the blind men who had settled downtown.

Leipzig was the traditional center many large publishers in Germany. However, in spite of the fall of the wall, Leipzig lost this major asset which took part in its international repute like illustrates it the case of the editor Reclam-Verlag. This house founded in Leipzig in 1828 was divided into two entities in 1947, with a recasting with Stuttgart in zone of American occupation. After the reunification, the house of Leipzig continued to publish under the name of “Reclam-Leipzig” until the beginning of the year 2006 when integration at the house of Stuttgart was complete. The name of “Reclam-Leipzig” is from now on a mark of Reclam-Verlag.

Since 1959, the city gives every two years the Gutenberg Price.

City of the music

Johann Sebastian Bach composes the majority of its crowned works in Leipzig whereas it is cantor with the church Saint-Thomas, of 1723 to its death in 1750. At this station, he writes more than 200 Cantate S, of which 126 reached us. Its tomb is in the chorus of the church.

The orchestra of Gewandhaus, another musical institution of this city, is a Symphony orchestra which saw following one another the most famous chief S, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Arthur Nikisch and Kurt Masur, leader contemporary of international repute.

In 1843, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann found the conservatory music.

The Opéra is inaugurated in 1960 and Gewandhaus, 3rd of the name, in 1981.

MDR orchestrates

Museums of the city

The museum of the Art schools, founded in 1837, recently settled in the Carré of art ( Museum DER bildenden Künste ).

The forum of modern history (history of the GDR and temporary exhibitions)

The museum of the history of the city

But also the Bach Museum, the Houses Museums of Schiller, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, the Egyptian museum, that of the musical instruments,…

Research centres scientist

The Academy of Science of Saxony is founded in Leipzig in 1846.

Company Max-Planck of anthropology évolutionnaire

Institute Fraunhofer

Places and monuments

Crowned buildings

In the center town of Leipzig are two churches known in Germany, the Thomaskirche and the Nikolaïkirche .

The church Saint-Thomas was the church of Jean Sebastien Bach. It composed there most of its crowned work. Its remainders rest since the second world war in the chorus of the church and two monuments with its memory were set up close to Saint-Thomas. The chorus of Thomaner, a choral society of a hundred young boys, whose history goes back to the 13th century, is one of most known of Germany. The thomaner, old from 8 to 18 years, attend a college-boarding school where they follow a teaching directed towards the music and the foreign languages. Most of the building is in a style neogothic of the 15th century. Since 1993 one finds the Gothic retable of the Saint Paul church there destroyed by the Communist regime in 1968.

The church Saint Nicolas's Day was the theater of the peaceful revolution of Fall 1989 which precipitated the fall of the East-German mode. Every Monday, after the traditional prayer for peace, it was the starting point of demonstrations which gained quickly in width, overflowing the authorities. A monument regaining the shape of a column of the church points out these historic moments.

The Russian orthodoxe church of the memory was set up in 1913, at the time of the festivities celebrating the victory over Napoleon at the time of the Bataille of the Nations of 1813. It celebrates the Russian soldiers fallen at the time of this battle.

The synagog (monument): With the corner of the streets Zentralstrasse and Gottschedstrasse, the site of the old synagog, destroyed at the time of the Night of crystal, was arranged in monument.

The church Saint Pierre ( Peterskirche ) was formerly located in the center town, at the southern end of Peterstrasse. Following an ambitious policy of town planning at the 19th century, the church was destroyed and a new church Saint Pierre, of style neogothic, was set up more in the south. The church currently undergone of important work. The restoration of the church long because will be financed by the gifts of the faithful ones.

Historical buildings

The old town hall , the Altes Rathaus on the place of the market, German Renaissance style, set up in 1556-1557 in a time record (9 months) by Hieronymus Lotter, Architect and mayor of the city. The asymmetry which it has (from its tower) in fact for the time a building avant-gardist.

Hieronymus Lotter , of the family of the Lotter, was the mayor but also an architect of Leipzig. It made also build the Ancienne Balance ( Alte Waage ) (1555) on the place of the market, where, at the time of the fairs of Leipzig, the products subjected to the customs duties were declared, and possibly weighed. He is also the architect of the Bastion known as Moritzbastei , a chief of work considered impregnable. A reputation put at evil when the Swedish troops seized the city at the time of the Thirty Year old war. In its galleries updatings in years 1970 settled a high place of the life coed of the close university (evenings, concerts, expos, readings…).

The new town hall (1905), the Neues Rathaus , of the beginning of the 20th century on the site of the old fortress the Pleissenburg . Its tower, with 114 meters, is the highest tower of town hall of Germany. It was to symbolize, in 1905, the power of the fourth town of Germany.

the passages of the center town:

The Old Stock Exchange (1678-1687) on the place Naschmarkt , in a style baroque, sheltered the meetings of the merchants of Leipzig. Rebuilt after the bombardments of the second world war, it accommodates today readings, concerts, exposures.

Middle-class houses baroques: At the corner of the streets Brühl and Katharinenstrasse is located the Romanushaus , formerly middle-class house, today sheltering apartments and trade, it was built between 1701 and 1703 by Johann Gregor Fuchs for Franz Conrad Romanus (1671-1756), mayor of Leipzig since 1701. To make build this sumptuous house baroque, it used public funds. The scandal burst, and Romanus was condemned to 45 years of prison.

In the lately founded German Empire, Leipzig accueilla more the legal high authority, the Reichsgericht , in a palate set up at the end of the 19th century in the south-west of the center town. It is in this building that took place the lawsuit of the Incendie of the Reichstag. Today, it is the seat of the administrative Federal court, one of the five high courts of justice of the Federal state.

Albertina shelters since 1891 the college library. Destroyed by the bombardments (but the great majority of volumes had been moved), Albertina was rebuilt in the years 1990. This true palate dedicated to the pounds presents an astonishing architecture and an interior decoration for a college library.

Structure of the 20th century

The Augustusplatz is one of the vastest places of Germany (: 40000 m ² i.e. more than Alexanderplatz in Berlin). Located at the end is center town, it was yet at the time modern, only one simple ground where sometimes the merchants had patience who went to the fairs of Leipzig while entering by the door of Grimma. It is today a central place by the institutions which border it (university, station, opera, orchestra of Gewandhaus…) and as a node of communication (underground car park, boulevard, tram lines). Named thus in the honor of Auguste the Fort, it was the Karl-Marx Platz during the mode of the GDR which wanted to make a regional window of the mode of it. The authorities decide not to rebuild the buildings with identical as it was the case for the forum of Berlin (University - Opera - Library) and in Dresden (Semper Opera - Zwinger); and to even make jump the church Saint Paul (church of the university) where Jean-Sebastien Bach played of the organ. This is why, put aside Krochhochhaus (former), the buildings still present the mark of socialist architecture.

The Krochhochhaus , set up in 1928, it was at the time the building highest of the area. So that in 1927, of many protested against the construction of this “skyscraper”. For the last 4 stages, the architect had the right only to set up the frontage, while waiting for that their utility was proven. The Krochhochhaus is crowned of a bell which the two bell ringers hammer (according to the model of that of the place Saint Marc in Venice). The tower is thus named according to the banker Hans Kroch, who had made the order of it.

The tower of the city (in the past turn of the university, today: City-Hochhaus ). Component of the university, it accommodated the seminars of various faculties. It is today about a high-rise office building, integrated well into the silhouette of the city. Last stage (where a restaurant is) one reaches the terrace which offers the best seen on the center of Leipzig. One often wrongly indicates it like the seat of MDR because of the logo which caps the top with it.

The Opéra builds of 1956 to 1960 with the site even of the opera destroyed by the allied bombardments. The building then wants to be a hyphen between the tradition and the modern one, and is regarded today as an example of the East-German architecture of its time.

The New Gewandhaus , high in 1981, vis-a-vis the opera, in the place of the old museum, shelters a German musical institution: the homonymous orchestra (see with this name). The resolutely modern building resplendit especially evenings in concert when, illuminated, it reveals with the passers by, through its glazed face, the immense interior fresco.

The university today and tomorrow: the central location of the university is, since 2005, the object of important work. In 2009, the new buildings will be inaugurated; a news Mensa (university canteen), the buildings sheltering the lecture theaters were entirely reconsidered, and the new buildings giving on the Augustusplatz will offer to the passers by an astonishing frontage. A new building will take again also dimensions of the old church Saint Paul, the church of the university dynamited in 1968 on decision of Walter Ulbricht. The rebuilding of this church is a polemical question which continues today to feed the debates. The architectural project is from now on final: dimensions of the building and its frontage will evoke those of a church. The polemic relates today to interior decoration: does one have to reinstall there the sculptures, objects crowned which were saved in 1968? Does the interior structure of the building have to be dominated by columns and naves? (the last bounce of the “business” envisages columns which “would be dematerialized” being composed, of the ceiling on the ground, stone, then of glass, and finally of light; its detractors already called them the “stalactites”). Site on work

Infrastructures and buildings indutriels

The station of Leipzig

The gantry of the Bavarian station

Industrial buildings of Plagwitz

Monuments

The Monument with the Battle of the Nations ( Völkerschlachtdenkmal ) in the south-east of the city commemorates this battle. This colossal monument was used at ideological ends in turn by the Nazi S (place of a great victory of the German people, the Nazis organized visual demonstrations there) and by the mode of SED (ideal of the bringing together with the Russia, of the friendship germano-Soviet). In 2013, for its bicentenary, the monument will have lost the blackness of its frontage: an immense operation of cleaning to the laser began in July 2005.

The New monument with Jean-Sebastien Bach set up in 1908 close to the church Thomas saint. On a base of 3,20m; the bronze statue of 2,45m represents the Master and his organ.

the Goerdelerdenkmal , the monument with Goerdeler, mayor of Leipzig and Résistant, carried out in 1945 by the authorities of Reich. This monument located near the New Town hall is a well of five meters, in underground of which a bell which sounds several times per. The night, a column of light spouts out well.

On the Naschmarkt , the place located behind the old town hall, and Old Stock Exchange, one can admire the monument with Goethe , statue of bronze on a granite base, revealed in 1903, it recalls that Goethe was student in Leipzig.

Sport and leisures

In 2003, Leipzig is indicated by the German Olympic committee to be the candidate city with the organization of the Olympic Games of summer of 2012. The other concurrent cities were Hamburg, Francfort-sur-le-Main, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf.

In 2006, the Zentralstadion accommodates several matches of the Football world cup of 2006.

Utility services

2004, Inauguration of the Zentralstadion on the site of the old central stage which had a capacity of: 100000 spectators. The new one with a capacity of: 45000 covered sitted places.

2002, Inauguration of the ARENA Leipzig , general sports room.

Moreover Leipzig counts more than 400 sporting centers (23 swimming pools and 14 complexes of watery sports, 128 sports halls, 4 stages, several ways of inlineskate, 71 sports grounds…), 300 sporting clubs, a college and a faculty of sporting sciences,

Collective sports

The city counts several clubs of Football, but those do not evolve/move in the elite of German football. One can in particular quote the Lokomotive Leipzig, finalist of the Coupe of Europe of the winners of cut of football in 1987 and 3 times champion of Germany, as well as the Sachsen Leipzig which evolves/moves in the fourth division.

Parks, lakes and channels

the green belt of the city:

Neuseenland Under this term hides ambitious project of State free of Saxony, which aims at revalorizing the old sites of mines with coal open sky which characterized the landscape of the south of Leipzig, still a few years ago. The gigantic natural tanks thus created, were filled with water. The 18 new lakes represent a surface of 70 km ². Sports equipment, of relaxation, places of camp-site is as many tourist assets. Largest (436 ha), nearest and more attended is the Cospudener See . Let us note finally that 4 of its lakes are intended to protect the town of a possible flood.

Zoo

The zoo of Leipzig:

Known characters

Since 1832, 82 personalities accepted the title of “citizen of honor of the town of Leipzig” ( Das Ehrenbürgerrecht ). It was withdrawn with 4 people of which Adolf Hitler and Walter Ulbricht.

External bonds

  • Official site of the town of Leipzig (also of the French infos)
  • photo Gallery of Leipzig

Simple: Leipzig

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