LEIPZIG - a little bit of history

Despite a great variety of incidents, the history of Leipzig was mainly influenced by the way the citizens saw themselves and their town. Economic and political independence had always been first and highest aim during more than eight centuries.

LEIPZIG AND TRADE FAIRS

Ancient trade market in Leipzig

Already the first document, from about 1165, which certifies Leipzig as a town, declares also the right to hold markets. Provided with special privileges - 1497 and 1507 by the emperor Maximilian I - the town developed to an important East-West trading centre, often called the 'Mother of all Trade Fairs'. In the 18th century Leipzig became the most important exhibition centre in Germany.

1895 the trade fair was replaced by a sample fair (Mustermesse - MM), which was hold twice a year, in spring and autumn, until 1991 at the historical exhibition houses (Messehäuser) in the centre of town and at different exhibition halls, pavilions and open areas of the 'Old Fair' south of the centre.

In 1996 the 'New Fair of Leipzig' was opened in the north of the town, with five modern exhibition halls and a congress centre, meanwhile a location for many important international fairs, congresses and specialist conferences throughout the whole year.

LEIPZIG AND BOOKS

Schiller's house in Leipzig Gohlis

Beside a centre of commerce and fairs Leipzig is a city of significant cultural, artistic and scientific importance.

The Leipzig university, founded 1409, is the second oldest in Germany, following Heidelberg. Leipzig is a very famous city of books and publishers, just giving you a few names of the publishers: Baedeker, Reclam, Göschen and Brockhaus, and Goethe, Schiller, Gottsched, Gellert, Klopstock and Lessing stand for the authors.

Leipzig is the seat of the German Library and the Central Library for the Blind. The Academy of Visual Arts (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst) is one of the most important one of its kind.

LEIPZIG AND MUSIC

The 'Gewandhaus' concert hall in Leipzig

There is no doubt that Leipzig is one of the most important music towns in Europe. In Leipzig worked Bach, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Schumann, Wagner, Lortzing, and Mahler.

Meanwhile the annual Bach festival is a performance of high international reputation, attracting visitors from all over the world.

Not to forget the 'Thomanerchor', a famous choir, whose singers can be heard regularly in the St. Thomas church, the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked from 1723 until 1750. We also have to mention the 'Gewandhausorchester', one of the oldest and most famous orchestra, founded by citizens of Leipzig in the 18th century.

LEIPZIG IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig

After the Battle of Leipzig (Völkerschlacht) and the Congress of Vienna great political and social as well as technical and industrial revolutions started.

Nearly no other period brought greater changes for Leipzig than the 19th century.
With the construction of a Saxon-German railway, which started 1839 with the first German long-distance railway line from Leipzig to Dresden, an active industrialization began in the middle of the 19th century.

By the incorporation of former independent country communities Leipzig spread out step by step nearly to its size of today.

LEIPZIG AND ITS ARCHITECTURE

The New City Hall in Leipzig

The expansion of the town was accompanied by a construction boom. A height of the building boom was the new town hall, built from 1899 - 1905 on the area of an old castle (Pleißenburg) in the southwester part of the city.

An imposing architecture, reflecting the self-confidence of the citizens of Leipzig, not only at that time.

Today Leipzig is the capital of historicism, a result of the construction boom during the second half of the 19th century.

During the 'Gründerzeit' architects borrowed elements from many different periods, as from the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance or Baroque, to combine and interpret them in a new way, just to find out their own style. Most of the 15000 cultural monuments in Leipzig are built during that time.

LEIPZIG TODAY

The new building of the university in Leipzig

During the last few years great investments were done for the complete renewal of the infrastructure and the reconstruction of many ancient buildings in the city. By that the public became aware of the abundance of the historic building stock of Leipzig.

Worth mentioning are the many passages, arcades, areaways and alley ways in the centre of the city, forming their own network of ways through the inner-city.

Meanwhile renowned companies as BMW, Porsche and DHL chose Leipzig for new production or logistic sites. Surely because of the modern and perfect infrastructure of the region, but perhaps also because of the circumstance that in Leipzig modern age, tradition and history perfectly found together.

The Strohsack arcade in Leipzig

Beside all the historic sights, the museums and cultural events, Leipzig is an ideal town for shopping, strolling around, and relaxing.

You will find a lot of shopping malls, coffee-houses, bars, and restaurants, e.g. the main station, the biggest 'Kopfbahnhof' in Europe, from 1995 till 1997 completely renovated, nowadays is a shopping mall and a meeting place on three floors with more then 100 shops, cafés and restaurants.

If you have more questions about Leipzig, please do not hesitate to contact us under the telephone number ++49 34 19 88 27 22 or use the contact form on this web site.

View over the Augustusplatz

The Grassi Museum in Leipzig