Leipzig Totally Explained

Everything about Leipzig totally explained

Leipzig is, with a population of over 510,200, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Rivers Pleiße, White Elster and Parthe.
   The "Peaceful Revolution" in 1989 which lead to the "Wende" and the reunification of Germany was initiated in Leipzig. The city's rich tradition in music and culture is mainly based on the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and finds its expresson in the worldwide famousness of the Gewandhausorchester and the Thomanerchor.
   Leipzig is well-known for its university and its trade fair. Germany's first labour party was founded in the city.
   Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the linden trees (US; lime trees in UK) stand". An obsolete English spelling of the name was Leipsic.

History

First documented in 1015 and endowed with city and market privileges in 1165, Leipzig has fundamentally shaped the history of Saxony and of Germany. Leipzig has always been known as a place of commerce. The Leipzig Trade Fair, which began in the Middle Ages, is the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. It became an event of international importance, especially as a point of contact with the Comecon Eastern Europe economic bloc, of which East Germany was a member.
   The foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409 initiated the city's development into a centre of German law and the publishing industry, and towards being a location of the Reichsgericht (Supreme Court), and the German National Library (founded in 1912). The philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born in Leipzig in 1646, and attended the University of Leipzig from 1661-1666. Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, at the St. Thomas Lutheran church, and Richard Wagner the composer was born in Leipzig in 1813. Later in the same year, the Leipzig region was the arena of the Battle of the Nations, which ended Napoleon's run of conquest in Europe, and led to his first exile on Elba. In 1913 the Völkerschlachtdenkmal monument celebrating the centenary of this event was completed.
   The importance of the Trade Fair and the University in the creation of a vibrant urban life and city politics from the Reformation through the 19th century can't be overestimated. Leipzig became a centre of the German and Saxon liberal movements.
   A terminal of the first German long distance railroad to Dresden (the capital of Saxony), in 1839, Leipzig became a hub of Central European railroad traffic, with a renowned station building, the largest terminal station by area in Europe.
   Leipzig expanded rapidly towards one million inhabitants. Huge Gründerzeit areas were built, which mostly survived the war and post-war demolition. Nowadays these areas are unique in modern Germany.
The first German labour party, the General German Workers' Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein, ADAV) was founded in Leipzig on 23 May 1863 by Ferdinand Lassalle; about 600 workers from across Germany travelled to the foundation on the new railway line.
   The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II. American troops of the 69th Infantry Division captured the city on April 20 1945, Adolf Hitler's 56th and last birthday. A few months later the U.S. ceded the city to the Red Army as it pulled back from the line of contact with Soviet forces in July 1945 to the pre-designated occupation zone boundaries. Leipzig became one of the major cities of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
   In 1989, after prayers for peace at the Nikolai Church, established in 1983 as part of the peace movement, the Monday demonstrations started as the most prominent mass protest against the East German regime.
   Leipzig was the German candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics, but didn't make it to the short list.

Main sights

Thomaskirche (St Thomas' Church): Most famous as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a cantor and home to the renowned Thomaner choir
Völkerschlachtdenkmal (Battle of the Nations Monument): the largest war monument in Europe, built to commemorate the successful battle against Napoleonic troops
Gewandhaus: home to the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra, it's the third building of that name
Altes Rathaus: the old city hall was built in 1556 and houses a museum of the city's history
Neues Rathaus: the city hall was built upon the remains of the Pleißenburg, a castle that was the site of the debate between Johann Eck and Martin Luther in 1519
City-Hochhaus Leipzig: built in 1972, it was once part of the university and is the city's tallest building
Auerbach's Keller: a young Goethe ate and drank here while studying in Leipzig; it's the venue of a scene from his Faust
Städtisches Kaufhaus (municipal department store): the world's first sample fair building and today home to offices, retail stores and restaurants (its name is misleading, as it's privately owned)
Bundesverwaltungsgericht: Germany's federal administrative court was the site of the Reichsgericht, the highest state court between 1888 and 1945

Among Leipzig's noteworthy institutions are the opera house and the Leipzig Zoo, the latter of which houses the world's largest facilities for primates. The Nikolaikirche (Church of St. Nikolai/Nicholas) was the starting point of peaceful Monday demonstrations for the reunification of Germany. Leipzig's international trade fair in the north of the city is home to the world's largest levitated glass hall. Leipzig is also known for its passageways through houses and buildings.

Education

Leipzig University, founded 1409, is one of Europe's oldest universities. Nobel Prize laureate Werner Heisenberg worked here as a physics professor (from 1927 to 1942), as did Nobel Prize laureates Gustav Ludwig Hertz (physics), Wilhelm Ostwald (chemistry) and Theodor Mommsen (Nobel Prize in literature). Other former staff of faculty include mineralogist Georg Agricola, writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, philosopher Ernst Bloch, eccentric founder of psychophysics Gustav Theodor Fechner, and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. Among the university's many noteworthy students were writers Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Erich Kästner, philosophers Gottfried Leibniz and Friedrich Nietzsche, political activist Karl Liebknecht, and composer Richard Wagner. Germany's chancellor since 2006, Angela Merkel, studied physics at Leipzig University

. The university has about 30,000 students.
The University of Music and Theatre

was established in 1843 as a music conservatory. One of its founders was renowned composer Felix Mendelssohn. A broad range of subjects can be studied, both artistic and teacher training, in all orchestral instruments, voice, interpretation, coaching, piano chamber music, orchestral conducting, choir conducting and musical composition. Musical styles include jazz, popular music, musicals, early music and church music. The drama departments teach acting and dramaturgy. Advanced students may, after a test, stand in for members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 2006, approximately 900 students are enrolled at the school.
The "Academy of Visual Arts" (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst) was established 1764. Its 530 students (as of 2006) are enrolled in courses in painting and graphics, book design/graphic design, photography and media art. The school also houses an Institute for Theory.
The "Leipzig University of Applied Sciences" (Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur

, HTWK) is with about 6200 students (as of 2007) the second biggest institution of higher education in Leipzig. It was founded in 1992, merging several older schools. As a university of applied sciences (German: Fachhochschule) it's slightly below the status of a university, with more emphasis on the practical part of the education. The HTWK offers many engineering courses, as well as courses of computer sciences, mathematics, business administration, library sciences, museum studies, and social work. It is mainly located in the south of the city.
The private Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL), or Leipzig Graduate School of Management, is the oldest business school in Germany.
Among the research institutes located in Leipzig three belong to the Max Planck Society (for Mathematics in the Sciences

, Human Cognitive and Brain Science

and Evolutionary Anthropology

) and two are Fraunhofer Society institutes. Others are the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ

, part of the Helmholtz Association

, and the Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research.

Economy

Companies in or around Leipzig include:

Amazon

Blüthner: piano-manufacturing

BMW

Porsche

Siemens DHL is in the process of transferring the bulk of its European air operations to Leipzig/Halle Airport.

Media

MDR, one of Germany's public broadcasters, has its headquarters and main television studios in the city. It provides programs to various TV and radio networks and has its own symphony orchestra, choir and a ballet.

Leipziger Volkszeitung (LVZ) is the city's only daily newspaper. Founded in 1894, it has published under several different forms of government. It was the first newspaper in the world that was published daily. The monthly magazine Kreuzer specializes on culture, festivities and the arts in Leipzig.

Once known for its large number of publishing houses, Leipzig had been called "Buch-Stadt" (book city). Few are left after the years of the German Democratic Republic, the most notable of them being branches of Brockhaus and Insel Verlag. Reclam, founded in 1828, was one of the large publishing houses to move away. The German Library (Deutsche Bücherei) in Leipzig is part of Germany's National Library.

On November 26, 1990, the Norwegian Black Metal band Mayhem recorded their oft-regarded as seminal live album Live in Leipzig.

Annual events

(Pop Up

: (May) Festival of independent music

A capella: vocal music festival

Bachfest: Johann Sebastian Bach-festival

Christmas market (since 1767)

Dokfestival: international festival for documented and animated film

GC - Games Convention: video game & developers convention

Jazztage: contemporary jazz festival

Ladyfest Leipzig

:(August) Emancipatoric, feminist Punk & Electro Festival

Leipzig Book Fair: the second largest German book fair

Leipziger Sommerakademie Dreiskau-Muckern

: art workshop

Stadtfest: city festival

Wave-Gotik-Treffen at Pentecost: world's largest goth or "dark culture" festival

Sport

The German Football Association (DFB) was founded in Leipzig in 1900.
   The city was the venue for the 2006 FIFA World Cup draw, and hosted four first-round matches and one match in the last 16th round in the football club FC Sachsen Leipzig's home stadium Zentralstadion.
   Leipzig also hosted the Fencing World Cup in 2005 and hosts a number of international competitions in a variety of sports each year.
   VfB Leipzig, now 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, won the first national football championship in 1903.
   Two-time World Cup Uneven Bars Champion and Olympic Medalist (1976, 1980) in gymnastics, Steffi Kraker was born in Leipzig.

Transportation

Leipzig station is at a junction of important north-to-south and west-to-east railway lines. An underground connecting line has been driven along the north-south axis. In the vicinity of the city are two airports:
Leipzig/Halle Airport and Leipzig-Altenburg Airport (Thuringia).

Quotations

Mein Leipzig lob' ich mir! Es ist ein klein Paris und bildet seine Leute. (I praise my Leipzig! It is a small Paris and educates its people.) - Frosch, a university student in Goethe's Faust, Part One

Twin cities

Leipzig is twinned with:

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia since 2004

Birmingham, United Kingdom (Birmingham's Partner City page

) since 1992

Bologna, Italy since 1962, renewed in 1997

Brno, Czech Republic since 1973, renewed in 1999

Frankfurt am Main, Germany since 1990

Hanover, Germany since 1987

Houston, Texas, USA since 1993

Kiev, Ukraine since 1961, renewed in 1992

Kraków, Poland since 1973, renewed in 1995

Lyon, France since 1981

Nanjing, China since 1988

Thessaloniki, Greece since 1984

Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2003

Plovdiv, Bulgaria since 1975, renewed in 2007

Notable residents

George J. Adler, (1821-1868), born in Leipzig, noted philologist, compiler of Dictionary of German and English Languages, went insane from stress of publishing it

Johann Sebastian Bach, composer

Gustav Fechner, (1801-1887), eccentric founder of psychophysics and noted satirist (under the pseudonym 'Dr. Mises') who was appointed professor of physics at Leipzig University in 1834. He resigned his position at the university in 1840 due to health problems, and Leipzig was his home for the rest of his life.

Die Prinzen, German music group

Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer, orientalist

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet

Edvard Grieg, (1843-1907), Norwegian composer

Hans Hartung, painter

Emil Jellinek, designer of first modern car engine

Georg Jellinek, philosopher

Bernard Katz, Nobel prize winning scientist

Horst Köhler, 13th President of Germany

Otto Kuntze, botanist

Gottfried Leibniz, polymath

Karl Liebknecht, co-founder of Communist Party of the Weimar Republic

Justus Hermann Lipsius, classical scholar

Felix Mendelssohn, composer

Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher

Kristine Nitzsche, East German athlete

Max Reger, composer, pianist and professor

Johann Jacob Reiske, orientalist

Johann Hermann Schein, early Baroque composer

Friedrich Schiller, (1759-1805), German poet and philosopher, lived in Leipzig for a time after fleeing Stuttgart

Auguste Schmidt, (1833-1902), Pioneer of womens education and womens rights activist

Robert Schumann, (1810-1856), German composer

Clara Schumann, German pianist

Christian Thomasius, philosopher

Richard Wagner, composer

Walter Ulbricht, former leader of the German Democratic Republic

Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, poet

Max Beckmann, 20th century painter

Birthplace of Till Lindemann, lead vocalist of German band Rammstein

Birthplace of Bill Kaulitz and Tom Kaulitz, members of the band Tokio Hotel

Hermann Merkin, German-Jewish BusinessmanFurther Information

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