Leipzig (, ; ;

Upper Saxon Upper Saxon (, , ) is an East Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German state of Saxony and in adjacent parts of southeastern Saxony-Anhalt and eastern Thuringia. As of the early 21st century, it is mostly extinct and a new r ...

: ; ) is the most populous city in the German state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the eighth-largest city in Germany and is part of the Central German Metropolitan Region. The name of the city is usually interpreted as a Slavic term meaning ''place of

linden tree ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperateness, temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Bri ...

s'', in line with many other Slavic placenames in the region. Leipzig is located about southwest of Berlin, in the southernmost part of the North German Plain (the

Leipzig Bay The Leipzig BayDickinson (1964), p. 29.White Elster The White Elster (, ) is a river in central Europe. It is a right tributary of the Saale. The source of the White Elster is in the westernmost part of the Czech Republic, in the territory of Hazlov. After a few kilometres, it flows into easte ...

and its tributaries Pleiße and Parthe. The Leipzig Riverside Forest, Europe's largest intra-city

riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, Sink (geography), sink, or reservoir. Due to the broad nature of the definitio ...

, has developed along these rivers. Leipzig is at the centre of Neuseenland (''new lake district''). This district has several artificial lakes created from former lignite open-pit mines. Leipzig has been a trade city since at least the time of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

Via Regia The Via Regia (Royal Highway) is a European Cultural Route following the route of the Historic roads, historic road of the Middle Ages. There were many such ''viae regiae'' associated with the king in the medieval Holy Roman Empire. History ...

and the

Via Imperii Via Imperii (Imperial Road) was one of the most important of a class of roads known collectively as imperial roads (') of the Holy Roman Empire. This old trade route ran in a south–north direction from Venice on the Adriatic Sea and Verona i ...

, two important medieval trade routes, intersected here, marking the city's economic importance. Leipzig's trade fair dates to 1190. Between 1764 and 1945, the city was a centre of publishing. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and during the period of the German Democratic Republic (

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

), Leipzig continued as a major urban centre in East Germany. But overall, because of isolation behind the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...

, its cultural and economic importance declined. Events in Leipzig in 1989 played a significant role in precipitating the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, mainly through demonstrations starting from St. Nicholas Church. The immediate effects of the

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

included the collapse of the local economy (which was dependent on the highly polluting

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

), severe unemployment, and urban blight. By the early 2000s the decline had reversed, and since then Leipzig has undergone some significant changes. It has had urban and economic rejuvenation, and modernisation of the transport infrastructure. Leipzig is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe (

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

). It is the main seat of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

(the second is

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

), the seat of the German Music Archive, as well as of the German Federal Administrative Court. Leipzig Zoo is one of the most modern zoos in Europe and as of 2018 ranks first in Germany and second in Europe. Leipzig's late-19th-century

Gründerzeit The (; ) was a period of Economic history of Europe (1000 AD–present), European economic history in mid- and late-19th century German Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary between Industrialization in Germany, industrialization and the great P ...

architecture consists of around 12,500 buildings. The city's central railway terminus Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is, at 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), Europe's largest railway station measured by floor area. Since Leipzig City Tunnel came into operation in 2013, it has formed the centrepiece of the

S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland Mitteldeutschland S-Bahn (), , represents an enlargement of the previous Leipzig-Halle S-Bahn. It is an Railway electrification system, electric rail public transit system operating in the metropolitan area of Leipzig-Halle, Germany. This S-Bahn ...

(''

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

Central Germany'') public transit system, Germany's largest S-Bahn network, with a system length of 802 km (498 mi). Leipzig has long been a major centre for music, including classical and modern

dark wave Dark wave, or darkwave, is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as being dark, ro ...

. The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig), a boys' choir, was founded in 1212. The

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

, established in 1743, is one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the world. Several well-known composers lived and worked in Leipzig, including

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

(1723 to 1750),

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

(1835 to 1847), and

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

, born in 1813. The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" was founded in 1843. The

Oper Leipzig The Leipzig Opera () is an opera house and opera company located at the Augustusplatz and the Inner City Ring Road at its east side in Leipzig's district Mitte, Germany. History Performances of opera in Leipzig trace back to Singspiel perfo ...

, one of the most prominent opera houses in Germany, was founded in 1693. During a stay in Gohlis, which is now part of the city,

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

wrote his poem " Ode to Joy".

Names

A once common English spelling of the city's name was , among many variants. The

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name was also used in many languages and in the academic publications of the city's university.

Etymology

The name ''Leipzig'' is commonly held to derive from ''lipa'', the common Slavic designation for linden trees, making the city's name etymologically related to Lipetsk, Russia. Based on medieval attestations like ''Lipzk'' (c. 1190), the original Slavic name of the city has been reconstructed as ''*Lipьsko'', which is also reflected in similar forms in neighbouring modern Slavic languages (Sorbian/Polish ''Lipsk'', Czech ''Lipsko''). This has, however, been questioned by more recent onomastic research based on the very oldest forms like ''Libzi'' (c. 1015).

Epithets

Due to the etymology mentioned above, ''Lindenstadt'' or ''Stadt der Linden'' (City of Linden Trees) are common poetic epithets for the city. Another, somewhat old-fashioned epithet is ''Pleiß-Athen'' (

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

on the Pleiße River), hinting at Leipzig's long academic and literary tradition, as the seat of one of the oldest German universities and a centre of the book trade. It is also referred to as "Little Paris" (''Klein-Paris'') after a line from

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

's '' Faust I'', which is partly set in the famous Leipzig restaurant ''

Auerbachs Keller Auerbachs Keller (, Auerbach's Cellar in English) is the second oldest restaurant in Leipzig, Germany. Already one of the city's most important wine bars by the 16th century, it owes its worldwide reputation to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe' ...

''. In 1937 the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

government awarded the city the epithet ' (Reich Trade Fair City Leipzig). In 1989 Leipzig was dubbed a Hero City (''Heldenstadt''), a title that the Soviet Union awarded to some of its cities for their key role in World War II. In Leipzig's case, though, this was an informal allusion to its role in the fall of the East German regime (through the Monday demonstrations). More recently, the city has sometimes been nicknamed ''Hypezig'', the "Boomtown of eastern Germany", or "The better Berlin" (''Das bessere Berlin'') and is celebrated by the media as a hip urban centre for its vibrant lifestyle and creative scene with many

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

Geography

Location

Leipzig is located in the

Leipzig Bay The Leipzig BayDickinson (1964), p. 29.North German Plain, which is the part of the North European Plain in Germany. The city sits on the

White Elster The White Elster (, ) is a river in central Europe. It is a right tributary of the Saale. The source of the White Elster is in the westernmost part of the Czech Republic, in the territory of Hazlov. After a few kilometres, it flows into easte ...

, a river that rises in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and flows into the

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

south of Halle. The Pleiße and the Parthe join the White Elster in Leipzig, and the large inland delta-like landscape the three rivers form is called ''Leipziger Gewässerknoten''. The site is characterized by swampy areas such as the Leipzig Riparian Forest (''Leipziger Auenwald''), though there are also some limestone areas to the north of the city. The landscape is mostly flat, though there is also some evidence of

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

and drumlins. Although there are some forest parks within the city limits, the area surrounding Leipzig is relatively unforested. During the 20th century, there were several open-pit mines in the region, many of which have been converted to lakes. Leipzig is also situated at the intersection of the ancient roads known as the

(King's highway), which traversed Germany in an east–west direction, and the

(Imperial highway), a north–south road. Leipzig was a walled city in the Middle Ages and the current "ring" road around the historic centre of the city follows the line of the old city walls.

Subdivision

Since 1992 Leipzig has been divided administratively into ten ''Stadtbezirke'' (boroughs), which in turn contain a total of 63 ''Ortsteile'' (localities). Some of these correspond to outlying villages which have been annexed by Leipzig. Verwaltung Leipzig

Neighbouring communities

Climate

Like many cities in Eastern Germany, Leipzig has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Cfb''), with significant continental influences due to its inland location. Winters are cold, with an average temperature of around . Summers are generally warm, averaging at with daytime temperatures of . Precipitation in winter is about half that of the summer. The amount of sunshine differs significantly between winter and summer, with an average of around 51 hours of sunshine in December (1.7 hours per day) compared with 229 hours of sunshine in July (7.4 hours per day).

History

Origins

Leipzig was first documented in 1015 in the chronicles of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg as ' (, VII, 25) and endowed with city and market privileges in 1165 by Otto the Rich. Leipzig Trade Fair, started in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, has become an event of international importance and is the oldest surviving trade fair in the world. This encouraged the growth of the Leipzig merchant bourgeoisie. There are records of commercial fishing operations on the river Pleiße that, most likely, refer to Leipzig dating back to 1305, when the

Margrave Margrave was originally the Middle Ages, medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a monarchy, kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain Feudal ...

Dietrich the Younger granted the fishing rights to the church and convent of St Thomas. There were a number of

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

in and around the city, including a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

monastery after which the Barfußgäßchen (Barefoot Alley) is named and a monastery of Irish monks (, destroyed in 1544) near the present day (the old '). The

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

was founded in 1409 and Leipzig developed into an important centre of German law and of the publishing industry in Germany, resulting, in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the

Reichsgericht The (, ) was the supreme criminal and civil court of Germany from 1879 to 1945, encompassing the periods of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. It was based in Leipzig. The began its work on 1 October 1879, the date on w ...

(Imperial Court of Justice) and the

being located here. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, two battles took place in , about outside Leipzig city walls. The first Battle of Breitenfeld took place in 1631 and the second in 1642. Both battles resulted in victories for the Swedish-led side. On 24 December 1701, when Franz Conrad Romanus was mayor, an oil-fueled

street light A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution b ...

ing system was introduced. The city employed light guards who had to follow a specific schedule to ensure the punctual lighting of the 700 lanterns.

19th century

The Leipzig region was the arena of the 1813

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813 at Leipzig, Saxony. The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I, Karl von Schwarzenberg, and G ...

between

Napoleonic France The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

and an allied coalition of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, Austria and Sweden. It was the largest battle in Europe before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the coalition victory ended

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's presence in Germany and would ultimately lead to his first exile on

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

. The Monument to the Battle of the Nations celebrating the centenary of this event was completed in 1913. In addition to stimulating German nationalism, the war had a major impact in mobilizing a civic spirit in numerous volunteer activities. Many volunteer militias and civic associations were formed, and collaborated with churches and the press to support local and state militias, patriotic wartime mobilization, humanitarian relief and postwar commemorative practices and rituals. While over half of the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony () was a German monarchy in Central Europe between 1806 and 1918, the successor of the Electorate of Saxony. It joined the Confederation of the Rhine after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, later joining the German ...

was formally ceded to Prussia, Leipzig remained part of King Frederick Augustus I. When it was made a terminus of the first German long-distance railway to

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

(the capital of Saxony) in 1839, Leipzig became a hub of Central European railway traffic, with Leipzig Hauptbahnhof the largest

terminal station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such ...

by area in Europe. The railway station has two grand entrance halls, the eastern one for the Royal Saxon State Railways and the western one for the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the state of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

. In the 19th century, Leipzig was a centre of the German and Saxon liberal movements. The first German labor 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. Leipzig expanded rapidly to more than 700,000 inhabitants. Huge areas were built, which mostly survived both war and post-war demolition. Leipzig um 1900

20th century

With the opening of a fifth production hall in 1907, the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei became the largest

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

company on the continent, housing over 240,000 spindles. Yearly production surpassed 5 million kilograms of yarn. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, in 1917, the American Consulate was closed, and its building became a temporary place of stay for Americans and Allied refugees from

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. During the 1930s and 1940s, music was prominent throughout Leipzig. Many students attended Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music and Theatre (then named Landeskonservatorium.) However, in 1944, it was closed due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It re-opened soon after the war ended in 1945. On 22 May 1930, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was elected mayor of Leipzig. He later became an opponent of the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. He resigned in 1937 when, in his absence, his Nazi deputy ordered the destruction of the city's statue of

. On

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

in 1938, the 1855

Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticism, Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mi ...

Leipzig synagogue, one of the city's most architecturally significant buildings, was deliberately destroyed. Goerdeler was later executed by the Nazis on 2 February 1945. Several thousand forced labourers were stationed in Leipzig during the Second World War. Beginning in 1933, many Jewish citizens of Leipzig were members of the Gemeinde, a large Jewish religious community spread throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In October 1935, the Gemeinde helped found the Lehrhaus (English: a house of study) in Leipzig to provide different forms of studies to Jewish students who were prohibited from attending any institutions in Germany. Jewish studies were emphasized and much of the Jewish community of Leipzig became involved.Willingham, Robert, and Crew, David F. ''Jews in Leipzig: Nationality and Community in the 20th Century'', 2005, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Pgs. 1–148 Like all other cities claimed by the Nazis, Leipzig was subject to aryanisation. Beginning in 1933 and increasing in 1939, Jewish business owners were forced to give up their possessions and stores. This eventually intensified to the point where Nazi officials were strong enough to evict the Jews from their own homes. They also had the power to force many of the Jews living in the city to sell their houses. Many people who sold their homes emigrated elsewhere, outside of Leipzig. Others moved to Judenhäuser, which were smaller houses that acted as ghettos, housing large groups of people. The Jews of Leipzig were greatly affected by the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law ...

. However, due to the Leipzig Trade Fair and the international attention it garnered, Leipzig was especially cautious about its public image. Despite this, the Leipzig authorities were not afraid to strictly apply and enforce anti-semitic measures. On 20 December 1937, after the Nazis took control of the city, they renamed it Reichsmessestadt Leipzig, meaning the "Imperial Trade Fair City Leipzig". In early 1938, Leipzig saw an increase in

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

through Jewish citizens. Many of these Zionists attempted to flee before deportations began. On 28 October 1938,

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

ordered the deportation of Polish Jews from Leipzig to Poland. The Polish Consulate sheltered 1,300 Polish Jews, preventing their deportation. On 9 November 1938, as part of

, in Gottschedstrasse, synagogues and businesses were set on fire. Only a couple of days later, on 11 November 1938, many Jews in the Leipzig area were deported to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. As

came to an end, much of Leipzig was destroyed. Following the war, the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

provided aid for the reconstruction of the city. In 1933, a census recorded that over 11,000 Jews were living in Leipzig. In the 1939 census, the number had fallen to roughly 4,500, and by January 1942 only 2,000 remained. In that month, these 2,000 Jews began to be deported. On 13 July 1942, 170 Jews were deported from Leipzig to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. On 19 September 1942, 440 Jews were deported from Leipzig to Theresienstadt concentration camp. On 18 June 1943, the remaining 18 Jews still in Leipzig were deported from Leipzig to Auschwitz. According to records of the two waves of deportations to Auschwitz there were no survivors. According to records of the Theresienstadt deportation, only 53 Jews survived. Mahnmal Gedenkinstallation 2021

During the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

at the start of

, in September 1939, the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

carried out arrests of prominent local

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

, and seized the Polish Consulate and its library. In 1941, the American Consulate was also closed by order of the German authorities. During the war, Leipzig was the location of five subcamps of the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...

, in which over 8,000 men, women and children were imprisoned, mostly Polish, Jewish, Soviet and French, but also Italian, Czech and Belgian. In April 1945, most surviving prisoners were sent on death marches to various destinations in Saxony and German-occupied Czechoslovakia, whereas prisoners of the Leipzig-Thekla subcamp who were unable to march were either burned alive, shot or beaten to death by the Gestapo, SS, ''

Volkssturm The (, ) was a ''levée en masse'' national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was set up by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscri ...

'' and German civilians in the Abtnaundorf massacre. Some were rescued by Polish forced laborers of another camp; at least 67 people survived. 84 victims were buried on 27 April 1945, however, the total number of victims remains unknown. During World War II, Leipzig was repeatedly struck by Allied bombing raids, beginning in 1943 and lasting until 1945. The first raid occurred on the morning of 4 December 1943, when 442 bombers of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF) dropped a total amount of almost 1,400 tons of explosives and incendiaries on the city, destroying large parts of the city centre. This bombing was the largest up to that time. Due to the close proximity of many of the buildings hit, a firestorm occurred. This prompted firefighters to rush to the city; however, they were unable to control the fires. Unlike the firebombing of the neighbouring city of Dresden, this was a largely conventional bombing with high explosives rather than incendiaries. The resultant pattern of loss was a patchwork, rather than wholesale loss of its centre, but was nevertheless extensive. The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Leipzig in late April 1945. The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division and U.S. 69th Infantry Division fought their way into the city on 18 April and completed its capture after fierce urban action, in which fighting was often house-to-house and block-to-block, on 19 April 1945. In April 1945, the Mayor of Leipzig, SS-''

Gruppenführer __NOTOC__ ''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire d ...

'' Alfred Freyberg, his wife and daughter, together with Deputy Mayor and City Treasurer Ernest Kurt Lisso, his wife, daughter and ''

'' Major and former Mayor Walter Dönicke, all committed suicide in Leipzig City Hall. The United States turned the city over to the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

as it pulled back from the line of contact with Soviet forces in July 1945 to the designated occupation zone boundaries. Leipzig became one of the major cities of the German Democratic Republic (

). Following the end of World War II in 1945, Leipzig saw a slow return of Jews to the city. They were joined by large numbers of German refugees who had been expelled from Central and Eastern Europe in accordance with the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

. In the mid-20th century, the city's trade fair assumed renewed importance as a point of contact with the

Comecon The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, often abbreviated as Comecon ( ) or CMEA, was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of states, Easter ...

Eastern Europe economic bloc, of which East Germany was a member. At this time, trade fairs were held at a site in the south of the city, near the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. The planned economy of the German Democratic Republic, however, was not kind to Leipzig. Before the Second World War, Leipzig had developed a mixture of industry, creative business (notably publishing), and services (including legal services). During the period of the German Democratic Republic, services became the concern of the state, concentrated in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

; creative business moved to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

; and Leipzig was left only with heavy industry. To make matters worse, this industry was extremely polluting, making Leipzig an even less attractive city to live in. Between 1950 and the end of the German Democratic Republic, the population of Leipzig fell from 600,000 to 500,000. In October 1989, after prayers for peace at St. Nicholas Church, established in 1983 as part of the peace movement, the Monday demonstrations started as the most prominent mass protest against the East German government. The

, however, was at first not good for Leipzig. The centrally planned heavy industry that had become the city's specialty was, in terms of the advanced economy of reunited Germany, almost completely unviable, and closed. Within only six years, 90% of jobs in industry had vanished. As unemployment rocketed, the population fell dramatically; some 100,000 people left Leipzig in the ten years after reunification, and vacant and derelict housing became an urgent problem. Starting in 2000, an ambitious urban-renewal plan first stopped Leipzig's population decline and then reversed it. The plan focused on saving and improving the city's attractive historic downtown area and particularly its early 20th century building stock, and attracting new industries, partly through infrastructure improvement. However, the renewal has led to

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

of parts of the city and has not arrested the decline of Leipzig-East.

21st century

Leipzig is an important economic centre in Germany. Since the 2010s, the city has been celebrated by the media as a hip urban centre with a very high quality of living. It is often called "The new Berlin". Leipzig is also Germany's fastest growing city. Leipzig was the German candidate for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, but was unsuccessful. After ten years of construction, the Leipzig City Tunnel opened on 14 December 2013. Leipzig forms the centrepiece of the

public transit system, which operates in the four German states of

, Saxony-Anhalt,

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

and

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

Politics

Mayor

The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Hinrich Lehmann-Grube of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served from 1990 to 1998. The mayor was originally chosen by the city council, but since 1994 has been directly elected. Wolfgang Tiefensee, also of the SDP, served from 1998 until his resignation in 2005 to become federal Minister of Transport. He was succeeded by fellow SPD politician Burkhard Jung, who was elected in January 2006 and re-elected in 2013 and 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 2 February 2020, with a runoff held on 1 March, and the results were as follows: ! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Candidate ! rowspan=2, Party ! colspan=2, First round ! colspan=2, Second round , - ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Sebastian Gemkow , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 72,427 , 31.6 , 107,611 , 47.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Burkhard Jung , align=left, Social Democratic Party , 68,286 , 29.8 , 110,965 , 49.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Franziska Riekewald , align=left, The Left , 31,036 , 13.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Katharina Krefft , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens , 27,481 , 12.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christoph Neumann , align=left,

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

, 19,854 , 8.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Katharina Subat , align=left,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine ...

, 5,467 , 2.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Marcus Viefeld , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 2,739 , 1.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Ute Elisabeth Gabelmann , align=left, Pirate Party Germany , 2,089 , 0.9 , 7,542 , 3.3 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 229,379 ! 99.6 ! 226,118 ! 99.5 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 822 ! 0.4 ! 1,235 ! 0.5 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 230,201 ! 100.0 ! 227,353 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 469,225 ! 49.1 ! 469,269 ! 48.4 , - , colspan=7, Source
Wahlen in Sachsen

City council

The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 173,343 , 18.9 , 1.4 , 13 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 160,490 , 17.5 , 3.9 , 12 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(AfD) , 155,506 , 17.0 , 2.1 , 12 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 137,614 , 15.0 , 5.7 , 11 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Social Democratic Party (SPD) , 110,520 , 12.1 , 0.3 , 8 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) , 88,146 , 9.6 , New , 7 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(PARTEI) , 31,933 , 3.5 , 0.3 , 2 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 24,898 , 2.7 , 2.1 , 2 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Free Voters Free Voters (, FW) is a political party in Germany. It originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations (), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These a ...

Leipzig (FW) , 10,106 , 1.1 , 1.4 , 1 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) , 9,759 , 1.1 , 0.3 , 1 , 0 , - , bgcolor=009332, , align=left, Free Saxons (FS) , 8,965 , 1.0 , New , 1 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Volt Germany (Volt) , 2,391 , 0.3 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, dieBasis , 914 , 0.1 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Garden 24 , 829 , 0.1 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Our Human Rights in Focus , 223 , 0.0 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 915,637 ! 100.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 318,541 ! 100.0 ! ! 70 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 472,669 ! 67.4 ! 7.7 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
Wahlen Leipzig

State Landtag

In the Landtag of Saxony, Leipzig is divided among eight constituencies. After the 2024 Saxony state election, the composition and representation of each was as follows:

Bundestag

In the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

, Leipzig constitutes two constituencies. In the 20th Bundestag, the composition and representation of each was as follows:

Demographics

Leipzig has a population of about 620,000. In 1930, the population reached its historical peak of over 700,000. It decreased steadily from 1950 to about 530,000 in 1989. In the 1990s, the population decreased rather rapidly to 437,000 in 1998. This reduction was mostly due to outward migration and suburbanisation. After almost doubling the city area by incorporation of surrounding towns in 1999, the number stabilised and started to rise again, with an increase of 1,000 in 2000. , Leipzig is the fastest-growing city in Germany with over 500,000 inhabitants. The growth of the past 10–15 years has mostly been due to inward migration. In recent years, inward migration accelerated, reaching an increase of 12,917 in 2014. In the years following German reunification, many people of working age took the opportunity to move to the states of the former West Germany to seek employment opportunities. This was a contributory factor to falling birth rates. Births dropped from 7,000 in 1988 to less than 3,000 in 1994. However, the number of children born in Leipzig has risen since the late 1990s. In 2011, it reached 5,490 births resulting in a RNI of −17.7 (−393.7 in 1995). The unemployment rate decreased from 18.2% in 2003 to 9.8% in 2014 and 7.6% in June 2017. The percentage of the population from an immigrant background is low compared with other German cities. , only 5.6% of the population were foreigners, compared to the German national average of 7.7%. The number of people with an immigrant background (immigrants and their children) grew from 49,323 in 2012 to 77,559 in 2016, making them 13.3% of the city's population (Leipzig's population 579,530 in 2016). The largest minorities (first and second generation) in Leipzig by country of origin as of 31 December 2021 are:

Culture, sights and cityscape

In the 2010s, Leipzig was often referred to as ''Hypezig'', as overblown comparisons were made to 1990s and early 2000s Berlin. The affordability, diversity and openness of the city have attracted many young people from across Europe, leading to a trendsetting alternative atmosphere, resulting in an innovative music, dance and art scene.

Architecture

The historic central area of Leipzig features a Renaissance-style ensemble of buildings from the sixteenth century, including the old city hall in the marketplace. There are also several baroque period trading houses and former residences of rich merchants. As Leipzig grew considerably during the economic boom of the late-nineteenth century, the town has many buildings in the historicist style representative of the era. Approximately 35% of Leipzig's flats are in buildings of this type. The new city hall, completed in 1905, is built in the same style. Some 90,000 apartments in Leipzig were built in buildings during Communist rule in East Germany. Although some of these have been demolished and fewer people live in this type of accommodation in recent years, a significant number still live in Plattenbau apartments. Grünau, for example, had about 43,600 people living in this sort of accommodation in 2016. The St. Paul's Church was destroyed by the Communist government in 1968 to make room for a new main building for the university. After some debate, the city decided to establish a new, mainly secular building at the same location, called Paulinum, which was completed in 2012. Its architecture alludes to the look of the former church and it includes space for religious use by the faculty of theology, including the original altar from the old church and two newly built organs. Many commercial buildings were built in the 1990s as a result of tax breaks after German reunification.

Tallest buildings and structures

The tallest structure in Leipzig is the chimney of the Stahl- und Hartgusswerk Bösdorf GmbH with a height of . With , the tallest building in Leipzig is the City-Hochhaus Leipzig. From 1972 to 1973 it was Germany's tallest building.

Museums and the arts

One of the highlights of the city's contemporary arts was the Neo Rauch retrospective opening in April 2010 at the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts. This is a show devoted to the father of the

New Leipzig School The New Leipzig School () is a movement in German painting, centred in the city of Leipzig after the German reunification. The usage and origins of this term are debated. History and characteristics The Leipzig School (painting), Alte Leipziger S ...

of artists. According to ''The New York Times'', this scene "has been the toast of the contemporary art world" for the past decade. In addition, there are eleven galleries in the so-called Spinnerei. The Grassi Museum complex contains three more of Leipzig's major collections: the Ethnography Museum, Applied Arts Museum and Musical Instrument Museum (the last of which is run by the University of Leipzig). The university also runs the Museum of Antiquities. Founded in March 2015, the G2 Kunsthalle houses the Hildebrand Collection. This private collection focuses on the so-called

. Leipzig's first private museum dedicated to contemporary art in Leipzig after the turn of the millennium is located in the city centre close to the famous St. Thomas Church on the third floor of the former GDR processing centre. Also dedicated to the contemporary art is the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig. Other museums in Leipzig include the following: *The German Museum of Books and Writing is the world's oldest museum of its kind, founded in 1884. *The Bach Museum at the St. Thomas Church Square. *The Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig located in the Kroch High-rise comprises a collection of about 7,000 artefacts from several millennia. *The Schillerhaus is the house where Schiller lived in summer 1785. *The Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig (Forum of Contemporary History) shows the history of the German division and the everyday life in the socialist German Democratic Republic. * Naturkundemuseum Leipzig is the city's natural history museum. *The Leipzig Panometer is a visual panorama displayed inside a former gasometer, accompanied by a thematic exhibition. *The "Museum in der Runden Ecke" is the best-known museum in the city. It deals with the operation of the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

State Security of the former East Germany. *

lived from 1723 until his death in Leipzig. The

Bach Archive The Bach-Archiv Leipzig or Bach-Archiv is an institution for the documentation and research of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach-Archiv also researches the Bach family, especially their music. Based in Leipzig, the city wher ...

is an institution for the documentation and research of his life and work. * Mendelssohn House, home of Felix Mendelssohn from 1845 until his death in 1847. * Schumann House, home of Robert and Clara Schumann from 1840 to 1844. * The Saxon Psychiatric Museum is a small museum dealing with the history of lunatic asylums and psychiatry. File:DNB2012.JPG, German Museum of Books and Writing File:Ägyptisches Museum Leipzig 099.jpg, Exhibits of the Egyptian Museum File:Leipzig-Grassi-Museen.jpg, Grassi Museum File:LE-Connewitz Gasometer I Arena-02.jpg, Inside Gasometer, next to the Panometer File:Runde Ecke Leipzig.jpg, Museum in der Runden Ecke File:Museum der bildenden Künste.JPG, Museum of Fine Arts File:Baumwollspinnerei.jpg, Baumwollspinnerei File:Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst.jpg, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst

Main sights

Leipzig Zoological Garden Leipzig Zoological Garden, or Leipzig Zoo () is a zoo in the Leipzig district of Leipzig-Mitte, Mitte, Germany. It was first opened on June 9, 1878. It was taken over by the city of Leipzig in 1920 after World War I and now covers about and contai ...

is one of the most modern zoos in Europe, with approximately 850 different animal species. It houses the world's largest zoological facilities for

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

s (Pongoland). Gondwanaland is the world's largest indoor rainforest hall. * Monument to the Battle of the Nations (''Völkerschlachtdenkmal'') ( Battle of the Nations Monument): one of the largest monuments in Europe, built to commemorate the victorious battle against Napoleonic troops. * Bundesverwaltungsgericht: Germany's federal administrative court was the site of the

, the highest state court between 1888 and 1945. * New Town Hall: the city's administrative building was built upon the remains of the '' Pleissenburg'', a castle that was the site of the 1519 debate between Johann Eck and

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

. It is also Germany's tallest town hall. * Old Town Hall on the

Market square A market square (also known as a market place) is an urban square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world. A market square is an open area where market stalls are tradit ...

: the old city hall was built in 1556 and houses a museum of the city's history. * City-Hochhaus Leipzig: built in 1972, the city's tallest habitable building is one of the top 25 tallest buildings in Germany. *The Augusteum and Paulinum at

Augustusplatz The Augustusplatz is a square located at the east end of the city centre of Leipzig, borough Leipzig-Mitte. It is the city's largest square and one of the largest squares in Europe. It is also part of the city's inner-city ring-road and a centra ...

form the new main campus of the

. * Leipzig Trade Fair centre in the north of the city is home to the world's largest levitated glass hall. * Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is the world's largest railway station by floor area and a shopping destination. * Auerbach's Cellar: a young

imbibed in this basement-level restaurant while studying in Leipzig; it features as the location of a scene from his play ''

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

''. *The Old Leipzig bourse at Naschmarkt with a monument of

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. * South Cemetery (Südfriedhof) is, with an area of , the largest cemetery in Leipzig. *The

has two locations, one of them in Leipzig. * Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof is Germany's oldest preserved railway station. * Gohlis Palace (Gohliser Schlösschen) * Leipzig Synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. Now a memorial of 140 bronze chairs stands where the pews once were. File:Panoràmma de Leipzig.jpg,

File:Leipzig - Zoo - Gondwanaland in 14 ies.jpg, Inside Gondwanaland at Leipzig Zoological Garden File:VölkerschlachtdenkmalLeipzig1.jpg, Monument to the Battle of the Nations File:Leipzig (Rathausturm, Neues Rathaus) 18 ies.jpg,

Federal Administrative Court of Germany The Federal Administrative Court (, , BVerwG) is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the court of the last resort for generally all cases of administrative law, mainly disputes between citizens and the state. It hears appea ...

File:Neues Rathaus Leipzig jpg8.jpg, New city hall File:Old city hall of Leipzig (5).jpg, Old city hall at market square File:Rainbowflash 2013 Leipzig (4).jpg, City-Hochhaus File:Uni Leipzig Paulinum Universitätskirche St. Pauli 216-cvh.jpg, New Augusteum of the University of Leipzig File:Messe Pano DRI.jpg, Leipzig Trade Fair File:Bahnhof Leipzig von Panorama Tower 2013.jpg, Leipzig main station File:Schilder an Auerbachs Keller 2013.jpg, ''Auerbachs Keller'' in the Mädlerpassage File:Ehemaliges Messehaus.jpg, Riquethaus (former Tradehouse) File:Goethe Statue Naschmarkt Leipzig.jpg, Old Leipzig bourse File:Suedfriedhof Leipzig.jpg, Südfriedhof File:BibLeipzigaussen.JPG, German National Library File:City-Tunnel Leipzig - Station Bayerischer Bahnhof 01 (Zugang 1).JPG, Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof File:Leipzig Gohliser Schloesschen.jpg, Gohlis Palace (Gohliser Schlösschen) File:Synagogue Memorial (Leipzig) (3).jpg, Leipzig Synagogue Memorial File:Yadegar Asisi Panorama EVEREST.jpg, 'Everest' at Leipzig Panometer

Churches

* St. Thomas's Church (Thomaskirche): most famous as the place where

worked as a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

and home to the renowned boys choir '' Thomanerchor''. A monument to

stands in front of this church. Destroyed by the Nazis in 1936, the statue was re-erected on 18 October 2008. * St. Nicholas's Church (Nikolaikirche), for which Bach was also responsible. The weekly ''Montagsgebet'' (Monday prayer) held here became the starting point of peaceful Monday demonstrations against the DDR regime in the 1980s. * St. Peter's has the highest tower of any church in Leipzig, at . *The new Propsteikirche, opened in 2015. *The Continental Reformed Church of Leipzig (''Evangelisch-reformierte Kirche'') is one of the most prominent buildings on the Leipzig Innercity ring. *The Russian Memorial Church of Leipzig *St. Michael's Church is one of the landmarks of Gohlis district. File:Nicolaikirche Leipzig.jpg, St. Nicholas Church File:Saint Thomas church in Leipzig (18).jpg, St. Thomas Church File:Peterskirche Leipzig easyHDR.jpg, St. Peter's Church File:Neue Propsteikirche St. Trinitatis Leipzig.jpg, Propsteikirche in May 2015; New Town Hall in the background File:Evangel.-Reform. Kirche (3668182160).jpg, Continental Reformed church of Leipzig File:Leipzig Russische Gedaechtniskirche.jpg, Russian Church of Leipzig File:Michaelis-SWL.jpg, St. Michael's Church with the headquarters of ''Stadtwerke Leipzig'' to the right

Parks and lakes

Leipzig is well known for its large parks. The ''Leipziger Auwald'' (

) lies mostly within the city limits. Neuseenland is an area south of Leipzig where old open-cast mines are being converted into a huge lake district. It is planned to be finished in 2060. * Leipzig Botanical Garden is the oldest of its kind in Germany. It contains a total of some 7,000 plant species, of which nearly 3,000 species comprise ten special collections. * Johannapark and Clara-Zetkin-Park are the most prominent parks in the Leipzig city centre ( Leipzig-Mitte). *'' Leipziger Auwald'' covers a total area of approx. 2,500 hectares. The Rosental is a park in the north of the forest and borders Leipzig Zoo. *The Leipzig Wildlife Park in Connewitz, showing 25 species. *The Lene Voigt Park on the refurbished site of the former train station Leipzig Eilenburger Bahnhof opened in 2004. File:SDC11449 - Epipedobates anthonyi.JPG, Inside Leipzig Botanical Garden File:Johannapark Leipzig.JPG, Johannapark File:Leipziger Auenwald April 2014 005.JPG, ''Leipziger Auwald'' File:Sonnenaufgang Rosental Leipzig.jpg, Rosental in the morning File:Leipzig Friedenspark.jpg, Friedenspark File:Markkleeberger See Strand.jpg, Markkleeberger See File:Cospudener See (1) 2005-09-09.JPG, Cospudener See

Music

Baroque to Modern

spent the longest phase of his career in Leipzig, from 1723 until his death in 1750, conducting the Thomanerchor (St. Thomas Church Choir), at the St. Thomas Church, the St. Nicholas Church and the Paulinerkirche, the university church of Leipzig (destroyed in 1968). The composer

was born in Leipzig in 1813, in the Brühl.

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

was also active in Leipzig music, having been invited by

when the latter established Germany's first musical

conservatoire A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

in the city in 1843.

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

was second conductor (working under Artur Nikisch) at the Leipzig Opera from June 1886 until May 1888, and achieved his first significant recognition while there by completing and publishing

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and Music criticism, critic in the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Best known for List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber, h ...

's opera Die Drei Pintos. Mahler also completed his own 1st Symphony while living in Leipzig. Today the conservatory is the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. A broad range of subjects are taught, including artistic and teacher training in all orchestral instruments, voice, interpretation, coaching, piano

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, orchestral conducting, choir conducting and

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

in various musical styles. The drama departments teach acting and scriptwriting. The Bach-Archiv Leipzig, an institution for the documentation and research of the life and work of Bach (and also of the Bach family), was founded in Leipzig in 1950 by Werner Neumann. The Bach-Archiv organizes the prestigious

International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition The International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition () is a music competition in Leipzig, Germany, held by the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. It was founded in 1950 and was held every four years from 1964 to 1996 with five subjects and is now held every two ...

, initiated in 1950 as part of a music festival marking the bicentennial of Bach's death. The competition is now held every two years in three changing categories. The Bach-Archiv also organizes performances, especially the international festival Bachfest Leipzig and runs the Bach-Museum. The city's musical tradition is also reflected in the worldwide fame of the

, under its chief conductor

Andris Nelsons Andris Nelsons (born 18 November 1978) is a Latvian conductor. He is currently music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and ''Gewandhauskapellmeister'' of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He was previously music director of the Lat ...

, and the Thomanerchor. The MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra is Leipzig's second largest symphony orchestra. Its current chief conductor is Kristjan Järvi. Both the Gewandhausorchester and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra make use of in the

Gewandhaus Gewandhaus () is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. History The first Gewandhaus (''Altes Gewandhaus'') The ...

concert hall. For over sixty years Leipzig has been offering a "school concert" programme for children in Germany, with over 140 concerts every year in venues such as the Gewandhaus and over 40,000 children attending.

Contemporary

Leipzig is known for its independent music scene and subcultural events. Leipzig has for thirty years been home to the (WGT), which is currently the world's largest Gothic festival, where thousands of fans of goth music gather in the early summer. The first Wave Gotik Treffen was held at the Eiskeller club, today known as Conne Island, in the Connewitz district. Mayhem's notorious album Live in Leipzig was also recorded at the Eiskeller club. Leipzig Pop Up was an annual music trade fair for the independent music scene as well as a music festival taking place on

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...

weekend. Its most famous indie-labels are Moon Harbour Recordings (House) and Kann Records (House/Techno/Psychedelic). Several venues offer live music frequently, including the Moritzbastei, Tonelli's, and Noch Besser Leben. ''

Die Prinzen Die Prinzen ("The Princes") is a German pop rock band, consisting of former members of the Thomanerchor, and a former member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor. Overview Early albums consist of a cappella music. The band's first name was ''Die Herz ...

'' ("The Princes") is a German band founded in Leipzig. With almost six million records sold, they are one of the most successful German bands. The cover photo for the

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

band's 2005 album '' Gulag Orkestar'', according to the sleeve notes, was stolen from a Leipzig library by Zach Condon. The city of Leipzig is also the birthplace of Till Lindemann, best known as the lead vocalist of

Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph ...

, a band formed in 1994. File:Opernhaus Leipzig Abend Nacht.jpg, Leipzig Opera File:AUGUSTUSPLATZ-014.jpg, View over

with the Gewandhaus File:Leipzig - Universitätsstraße - Moritzbastei 05 ies.jpg, Moritzbastei is the largest student club in Germany and is famous for its atmosphere and large number of cultural and music events. File:Johann Sebastian Bach Denkmal Leipzig.jpg, Monument of

File:Wahren3.jpg, Haus Auensee, a concert hall

Annual events

*Auto Mobil International (AMI) motor show *AMITEC, trade fair for vehicle maintenance, care, servicing and repairs in Germany and Central Europe *''

A cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

'': vocal music festival, organized by the ensemble amarcord *'' Bachfest'':

festival * Leipzig Christmas Market (since 1458) *'' Dok Leipzig'': international festival for documentary and animated film *Jazztage, contemporary jazz festival *Ladyfest Leipzig (August) Emancipatoric, feminist punk and electro festival * Leipzig Book Fair: the second largest German book fair after Frankfurt *, festival celebrating the demonstrations leading up to the collapse of the East German regime *OPER unplugged with Music Dance Theatre by Heike Hennig & Co *''Stadtfest'': city festival * at

: world's largest goth or "dark culture" festival *Leipzig Pop Up *

Chaos Communication Congress The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual hacker conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and ...

File:Leipzig Messe Kongresszentrum Glashalle.jpg, Leipzig Trade Fair File:Leipziger Buchmesse 2015.jpg, Leipzig Book Fair 2015 File:2016 WGT 002 Belantis.jpg, Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2016; Belantis park in the background File:Leipziger Weihnachtsmarkt Eingang.jpg, Leipzig Christmas market entrance File:Dokwoche.jpg, DOK Leipzig

Food and drink

*An all-season local dish is Leipziger Allerlei, a stew consisting of seasonal vegetables and

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...

. * Leipziger Lerche is a

shortcrust pastry Shortcrust is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken pie. ...

dish filled with crushed almonds, nuts and strawberry jam; the name ("Leipzig lark") comes from a lark pâté which was a Leipzig speciality until the banning of songbird hunting in Saxony in 1876. * Gose is a locally brewed top-fermenting sour beer that originated in the

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...

region and became popular in 18th-century Leipzig. File:Leipziger Lerchen.jpg, Leipziger Lerchen File:Goseflasche Pressglas.jpg, Historical Gose bottle ()

Sports

There are more than 300 sport clubs in the city, representing 78 different disciplines. Over 400 athletic facilities are available to citizens and club members.

Football

The

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

(DFB) was founded in Leipzig in 1900. The city was the venue for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

draw, and hosted four first-round matches and one match in the round of 16 in the central stadium. VfB Leipzig won the first national Association football championship in 1903. The club was dissolved in 1946 and the remains reformed as SG Probstheida. The club was eventually reorganized as football club 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig in 1966. 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig has had a glorious past in international competition as well, having been champions of the 1965–66 Intertoto Cup, semi-finalists in the 1973–74 UEFA Cup, and runners-up in the 1986–87 European Cup Winners' Cup.

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

took over a local 5th division football club SSV Markranstädt in May 2009, having previously been denied the right to buy into FC Sachsen Leipzig in 2006. The club was renamed

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

and came up through the ranks of German football, winning promotion to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, the highest division of German football in 2016. The club finished runners-up in its first-ever Bundesliga season and made its debut in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

in 2017 and the Semi-Final in 2020. RB Leipzig won the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

football cup twice, in 2022 and 2023. List of Leipzig men and women's football clubs playing at state level and above: Note 1: The RB Leipzig women's football team was formed in 2016 and began play in the 2016–17 season.
Note 2: The club began play in the 2008–09 season.

Ice hockey

Since the beginning of the 20th century,

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

has gained popularity, and several local clubs established departments dedicated to that sport.

Handball

SC DHfK Leipzig is the men's handball club in Leipzig and were six times (1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965 and 1966) the champion of East Germany handball league and was winner of

EHF Champions League The EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the men's com ...

in 1966. They finally promoted to

Handball-Bundesliga The Handball-Bundesliga (HBL) is the top German professional handball league. From 2007 to 2012, the league was sponsored by Toyota and was officially called the ''Toyota Handball-Bundesliga''. In 2012 the Deutsche Kreditbank AG (DKB) became t ...

as champions of 2. Bundesliga in 2014–15 season. They play in the

Arena Leipzig The Arena Leipzig is a multipurpose indoor arena located in Leipzig, Germany. The capacity of the arena is 8,000 people for sporting events and up to 12,200 for shows and concerts. It is part of the Sportforum Leipzig, which also contains Red Bul ...

which has a capacity of 6,327 spectators in HBL games but can take up to 7,532 spectators for handball in maximum capacity. Handball-Club Leipzig is one of the most successful women's handball clubs in Germany, winning 21 domestic championships since 1953 and 2 Champions League titles. The team was however relegated to the third tier league in 2017 due to failing to achieve the economic standard demanded by the league licence.

American football

The Leipzig Kings were an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team playing in the

European League of Football The European League of Football (ELF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football sports league, league based in Europe, continuing some team names and logos of the former NFL Europe. The ELF played its first season in 2 ...

(ELF), which is a professional league, that became the first fully professional league in Europe since the demise of

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

. The Kings began by playing games against teams from Germany, Spain and Poland in June 2021. They played their home games at Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark.

Speedway

The Motodrom am Cottaweg is a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

stadium on the west side of the Neue Luppe, located on the Cottaweg road. The venue is used by the speedway club called Motorsport Club Post Leipzig e.V. and held the East German Speedway Championship in 1978 and a qualifying round of the

Speedway World Team Cup The Speedway World Team Cup was an annual motorcycle speedway, speedway event held each year in different countries. The competition started in 1960 and was replaced with the Speedway World Cup in 2001. Format From 1960 until 1985, each team c ...

in 1991.

Other sports

From 1950 to 1990 Leipzig was host of the Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur (DHfK, German College of Physical Culture), the national sports college of the GDR. Leipzig also hosted the

Fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

World Cup in 2005 and hosts a number of international competitions in a variety of sports each year. Leipzig made a bid to host the

. The bid did not make the shortlist after the International Olympic Committee pared the bids down to 5. Markkleeberger See is a new lake next to Markkleeberg, a suburb on the south side of Leipzig. A former open-pit coal mine, it was flooded in 1999 with groundwater and developed in 2006 as a tourist area. On its southeastern shore is Germany's only pump-powered artificial whitewater slalom course, Markkleeberg Canoe Park (Kanupark Markkleeberg), a venue which rivals the Eiskanal in

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

for training and international canoe/kayak competition. Leipzig Rugby Club competes in the German Rugby Bundesliga but finished at the bottom of their group in 2013. Leipzig hosted the Indoor Hockey World Cup in 2015. All matches were played in Leipzig Arena, with the Netherlands coming out victorious in both the men's and women's tournaments. On 1 May every year, the opening of the

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

season is celebrated in Leipzig's Racecourse Scheibenholz.

Education

University

, founded 1409, is one of Europe's oldest universities. Karl Bücher, a German economist, founded the ''Institut für Zeitungswissenschaften'' (Institute for Newspaper Science) at the University of Leipzig in 1916. It was the first institute of its kind to be established in Europe, and it marks the commencement of academic study of media communication in Germany.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...

, a philosopher and mathematician, was born in Leipzig in 1646, and attended the university from 1661 to 1666. Nobel Prize laureate

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...

worked at the university as a physics professor (from 1927 to 1942), as did Nobel Prize laureates Gustav Ludwig Hertz (physics), Wilhelm Ostwald (chemistry) and

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; ; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th ce ...

(

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

). The 2022

Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single ...

went to Svante Pääbo, an honorary professor at the university. Other former university staff include mineralogist Georg Agricola, writer

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (; ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...

, philosopher Ernst Bloch, founder of

psychophysics Psychophysics is the field of psychology which quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimulus (physiology), stimuli and the sensation (psychology), sensations and perceptions they produce. Psychophysics has been described ...

Gustav Theodor Fechner Gustav Theodor Fechner (; ; 19 April 1801 – 18 November 1887) was a German physicist, philosopher, and experimental psychologist. A pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics (techniques for measuring the mind), he inspired ...

, and founder of modern psychology,

Wilhelm Wundt Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was t ...

. The university's notable former students include writers

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, and philosoph ...

and

Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including ''Emil and the Detectives'' and '' Lisa an ...

, philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

, political activist Karl Liebknecht, and composer

. Angela Merkel, former German chancellor, studied physics at Leipzig University. The university has about 30,000 students. A part of Leipzig University is the German Institute for Literature which was founded in 1955 under the name "Johannes R. Becher-Institut". Many noted writers have graduated from this school, including Heinz Czechowski, Kurt Drawert, Adolf Endler, Ralph Giordano, Kerstin Hensel,

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woma ...

and Rainer Kirsch, Angela Krauß, Erich Loest, and Fred Wander. After its closure in 1990 the institute was refounded in 1995 with new teachers.

Visual arts and theatre

The Academy of Visual Arts ('' Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst'') was established in 1764. Its 600 students () 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 University of Music and Theatre offers a broad range of subjects ranging from training in orchestral instruments, voice, interpretation, coaching, piano chamber music, orchestral conducting, choir conducting and musical composition to acting and scriptwriting. Rat-des-Bezirkes-Leipzig

University of Applied Science

The Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) has approximately 6,200 students () and is () 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: ) its status is slightly below that of a university, with more emphasis on the practical parts of education. The HTWK offers many engineering courses, as well as courses in computer science, mathematics, business administration, librarianship, museum studies, and social work. It is mainly located in the south of the city.

Leipzig Graduate School

The private Leipzig Graduate School of Management, (in German ''Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL)''), is the oldest business school in Germany. According to

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

, HHL is one of the best schools in the world, ranked at number six overall.

Lancaster University Leipzig

Branch campus of

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

, it is the first public UK university with a campus in Germany. Lancaster University Leipzig was founded in 2020 and currently has a diverse international student body with more than 45 nationalities.

Research institutes

Leipzig is currently the home of twelve research institutes and the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities. *

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

: Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences,

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences is located in Leipzig, Germany. The institute was founded in 2004 by a merger between the former Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig and the Max Planck Institu ...

, and

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network. Well-known scientists currently based at ...

. *

Fraunhofer Society The Fraunhofer Society () is a German publicly-owned research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science (as opposed to the Max Planck Society, which works primarily on Basic re ...

institutes: Fraunhofer IZI and Fraunhofer IMW. *

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres () is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. The official mission of the Association is "solving the g ...

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research The work of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ (prior to 28 November 2006 UFZ-Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle GmbH) covers both basic research and applied research. The UFZ was established on 12 December 1991. The Centr ...

* *

Leibniz Association The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. Funding and Structure As of 2020, 96 non-u ...

: , ,

Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe The Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) (German: ''Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa''), headquartered in Leipzig, is an interdisciplinary, internationally-oriented research instit ...

, , .

Others

Leipzig is home to one of the world's oldest schools, '' Thomasschule zu Leipzig'' (St. Thomas' School, Leipzig), which gained fame for its long association with the Bach family of musicians and composers. The Lutheran Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Leipzig. The seminary trains students to become pastors for the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church or for member church bodies of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference.

Economy

The city is a location for automobile manufacturing by

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

in large plants north of the city. In 2011 and 2012

DHL DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

transferred the bulk of its European air operations from Brussels Airport to Leipzig/Halle Airport. Kirow Ardelt AG, the world market leader in breakdown cranes, is based in Leipzig. The city also houses the

European Energy Exchange European Energy Exchange (EEX) AG is a central European electric power and related commodities exchange located in Leipzig, Germany. It develops, operates and connects secure, liquid and transparent markets for energy and related products, inc ...

, the leading energy exchange in Central Europe. VNG – Verbundnetz Gas AG, one of Germany's large natural gas suppliers, is headquartered at Leipzig. In addition, inside its larger metropolitan area, Leipzig has developed an important petrochemical centre. Some of the largest employers in the area (outside of manufacturing) include software companies such as Spreadshirt and the various schools and universities in and around the Leipzig/ Halle region. The University of Leipzig attracts millions of

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s of investment yearly and celebrated its 600th birthday in 2009. Leipzig also benefits from world-leading medical research (Leipzig Heart Centre) and a growing biotechnology industry. Many bars, restaurants and stores in the downtown area are patronized by German and foreign tourists. Leipzig Main Train Station is the location of a shopping mall. Leipzig is one of Germany's most visited cities with over 3 million overnight stays in 2017. In 2010, Leipzig was included in the top 10 cities to visit by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', and ranked 39th globally out of 289 cities for innovation in the 4th Innovation Cities Index published by Australian agency 2thinknow. In 2015, Leipzig have among the 30 largest German cities the third best prospects for the future. In recent years Leipzig has often been nicknamed the "Boomtown of eastern Germany" or "Hypezig". it had the highest rate of population growth of any German city. Companies with operations in or around Leipzig include: *

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

* Blüthner: piano-manufacturing *

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

* Future Electronics File:Porsche Diamond.jpg, Porsche Diamond, the customer centre building of Porsche Leipzig File:BMW Leipzig MEDIA Download Luftaufnahme 3 max.jpg, BMW production facility in Leipzig File:Amazon.de Versandhaus Leipzig.jpg, Amazon in Leipzig File:EAT LEJ Hangar.jpg, Leipzig is the hub of DHL. File:Lzg. Löhrs Carré 1.jpg, Headquarters of the Sparkasse Leipzig bank File:Sächsische Aufbaubank Leipzig April 2022.jpg, Leipzig is the seat of the Development Bank of Saxony. File:Markkleeberger See Bootsanlegestelle.jpg, Markkleeberger See File:Höfe am Brühl 20120928-3.jpg, Höfe am Brühl shopping mall, situated on the former route of

, an ancient trade road

Socio-ecological infrastructure

Leipzig has a dense network of socio-ecological infrastructures. Worth mentioning in the food sector are the ''Fairteiler'' of foodsharing and the numerous

Community-supported agriculture Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an altern ...

s, in the textile sector the ''Umsonstladen'' in Plagwitz, in the bicycle self-help workshops the ''Radsfatz'', in the computer sector the

Hackerspace A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sci ...

''Die Dezentrale'', and in the repair sector the ''Café kaputt''.

Media

* MDR, one of Germany's public broadcasters, has its headquarters and main television studios in the city. It provides programmes 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. The monthly magazine ''Kreuzer'' specializes in culture, festivities and the arts in Leipzig. Leipzig was also home to the world's first daily newspaper in modern times. The '' Einkommende Zeitungen'' were first published in 1650. *Leipzig has one daily or semi-daily English-language publication, ''The Leipzig Glocal''. It is an online-based magazine and blog that caters to an international as well as local audience. Besides publishing pages on jobs, doctors and movies available in English and other languages, the site's team of authors writes articles about lifestyle, arts & culture, politics, entertainment, Leipzig events, etc. *Once known for its large number of publishing houses, Leipzig had been called ''Buch-Stadt'' (book city), the most notable of them being branches of Brockhaus and Insel Verlag. Few are left after the years of economic decline during the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, during which time Frankfurt developed as a much more important publishing centre. Reclam, founded in 1828, was one of the large publishing houses to move away. Leipzig still has a book fair, but Frankfurt's is far bigger. *The German Library (Deutsche Bücherei) in Leipzig is part of Germany's National Library. Its task is to collect a copy of every book published in German.

Quality of life

In December 2013, according to a study by GfK, Leipzig was ranked as the most livable city in Germany. In 2015/2016, Leipzig was named by the consumer portal verbraucherzentrale.de as the second-best city for students in Germany (after

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

). In a 2017 study from the Institut für Handelsforschung Köln, the Leipzig inner city ranked first among all large cities in Germany due to its urban aesthetics, gastronomy, and shopping opportunities. According to HWWI/Berenberg-Städteranking, since 2018 it also has the second-best future prospects of all cities in Germany, second to Munich in 2018 and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 2019. According to a 2017 Global Least & Most Stressful Cities Ranking by Zipjet, a London-based online laundry service, Leipzig was one of the least stressful cities in the World. It was ranked 25th out of 150 cities worldwide and above

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Frankfurt, and Berlin. Leipzig was named European City of the Year at the 2019 Urbanism Awards. According to the 2019 study by Forschungsinstitut Prognos, Leipzig is the most dynamic region in Germany. Within 15 years, the city climbed 230 places and occupied in 2019 rank 104 of all 401 German regions. Leipzig was listed as one of 52 places to go in 2020 by ''

'' and the highest-ranking German destination. Leipzig Hauptbahnhof has been ranked the best railway station in Germany and the third-best in Europe in a consumer organisation poll, surpassed only by St Pancras railway station and

Zürich Hauptbahnhof Zürich Hauptbahnhof, often shortened to Zürich HB or just HB, and known in English as Zurich Main Station, is the largest railway station in Switzerland and one of the busiest in Europe. It is a major railway hub, with services to and from a ...

Transport

Founded at the crossing of

and

, Leipzig has been a major interchange of inter-European traffic and commerce since medieval times. After the

Reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

, immense efforts to restore and expand the traffic network have been undertaken and left the city area with an excellent infrastructure.

Railways

Opened in 1915, Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (lit. ''main station'') is the largest overhead railway station in Europe in terms of its built-up area. At the same time, it is an important supra-regional junction in the

Intercity-Express Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this Train categories in Europe, category) is a high-speed rail in Germany, high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland an ...

(ICE) and

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

network of the as well as a connection point for

and regional traffic in the Halle/Leipzig area. In Leipzig the Intercity Express routes (Hamburg–)Berlin–Leipzig–Nuremberg–Munich and Dresden–Leipzig–Erfurt–Frankfurt am Main–(Wiesbaden/Saarbrücken) intersect. Leipzig is also the starting point for the intercity lines Leipzig-Halle (Saale)–Magdeburg–Hannover–Dortmund–Köln and –Bremen–Oldenburg(–Norddeich Mole). Both lines complement each other at hourly intervals and also stop at Leipzig/Halle Airport. The only international connection is the daily EuroCity Leipzig-Prague. Most major and medium-sized towns in Saxony and southern Saxony-Anhalt can be reached without changing trains. There are also direct connections via regional express lines to Falkenberg/Elster-Cottbus, Hoyerswerda and Dessau-Magdeburg as well as Chemnitz. Neighbouring Halle (Saale) can be reached via three S-Bahn lines, two of which run via Leipzig/Halle Airport. The surrounding area of Leipzig is served by numerous regional and S-Bahn lines. The city's railway connections are currently being greatly improved by major construction projects, particularly within the framework of the German Unity transport projects. The line to Berlin has been extended and has been passable at since 2006. On 13 December 2015, the high-speed line from Leipzig to Erfurt, designed for , was put into operation. Its continuation to Nuremberg followed in December 2017. This integration into the high-speed network considerably reduced the journey times of the ICE from Leipzig to Nuremberg, Munich and Frankfurt am Main. The Leipzig-Dresden railway line, which was the first German long-distance railway to go into operation in 1839, is also undergoing expansion for 200 km/h. The most important construction project in regional transport was the four-kilometer-long

city tunnel City Tunnell may refer to: * City Tunnel (Malmö), a railway tunnel in Sweden * Cross City Tunnel, a road tunnel in Sydney, Australia * Frankfurt City Tunnel, a railway tunnel in Germany * Offenbach City Tunnel, a railway tunnel in Germany * Le ...

, which went into operation in December 2013 as the main line of the

. There are freight stations in the districts of Wahren and Engelsdorf. In addition, a freight traffic centre has been set up near the Schkeuditzer Kreuz junction for goods handling between road and rail, as well as a freight station on the site of the DHL hub at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

Suburban trains

Leipzig is the core of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland line network. Together with the tram, six of the ten lines form the backbone of local public transport and an important link to the region and the neighbouring Halle. The main line of the S-Bahn consists of the underground S-Bahn stations Hauptbahnhof, Markt, Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz and Bayerischer Bahnhof leading through the City Tunnel as well as the above-ground station Leipzig MDR. There are a total of 30 S-Bahn stations in the Leipzig city area. Endpoints of the S-Bahn lines include Wurzen, Zwickau, Dessau, and Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Two lines run to Halle, one of them via Leipzig/Halle Airport. With the timetable change in December 2004, the networks of Leipzig and Halle were combined to form the Leipzig-Halle S-Bahn. However, this network only served as a transitional solution and was replaced by the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland on 15 December 2013. At the same time, the main line tunnel, marketed as the Leipzig City Tunnel, went into operation. The tunnel, which is almost four kilometres long, crosses the entire city centre from the main railway station to the Bavarian railway station. The S-Bahn stations are up to 22 metres underground. This construction was the first to create a continuous north–south axis, which had not existed until now due to the north-facing terminus station. The connection to the south of the city and the federal state will thus be greatly improved.

Tramway and buses

The Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe, existing since 1 January 1917, operate a total of 15 tram lines and 47 bus lines in the city. The total length of the tram network is , making it the largest in Saxony ahead of

() and the second largest in Germany after

(). The longest line in the Leipzig network is line 11, which connects Schkeuditz with Markkleeberg over 22 kilometres and is the only tram line in Leipzig to run in three tariff zones of the Central German Transport Association. Night bus lines N1 to N9 and the night tram N17 operate in the night traffic. On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays the tram line N10 and the bus line N60 also operate. The central transfer point between the bus and tram lines as well as to the S-Bahn is Leipzig Central Station.

Bicycle

Like most German cities, Leipzig has a traffic layout designed to be bicycle-friendly. There is an extensive cycle network. In most of the one-way central streets, cyclists are explicitly allowed to cycle both ways. A few cycle paths have been built or declared since 1990. According to the data from the 2021/22 traffic count, the Saxons' Bridge has the highest traffic occupancy with over 15,000 cyclists per day in cycling in Leipzig. Since 2004 there is a

bicycle-sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include both ...

. Bikes can be borrowed and returned via smartphone app or by telephone. Since 2018, the system has enabled flexible borrowing and returning of bicycles in the inner city; in this zone, bicycles can be handed in and borrowed from almost any street corner. Outside these zones, there are stations where the bikes are waiting. The current locations of the bikes can be seen via the app. There are cooperation offers with the Leipzig public transport companies and car sharing in order to offer as complete a mobility chain as possible.

Road

Several federal motorways pass by Leipzig: the A 14 in the north, the A 9 in the west, and the A 38 in the south. The three motorways form a triangular partial ring of the double ring Mitteldeutsche Schleife around Halle and Leipzig. To the south towards Chemnitz, the A 72 is also partly under construction. The federal roads B 2, B 6, B 87, B 181, and B 184 lead through the city area. The ring road (Innenstadtring), which corresponds to the course of the old city fortification, surrounds the city centre of Leipzig, which today is largely traffic-calmed. Leipzig has a dense network of

carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

stations. Additionally, since 2018 there is also a stationless car sharing system in Leipzig. Here the cars can be parked and booked anywhere in the inner city without having to define a specific car or period in advance. Finding and booking is done via a smartphone app. Leipzig is one of the few cities in Germany with

vehicle for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which t ...

services that can be booked via a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

. In contrast to taxicab services, the start and destination must be defined beforehand and other passengers can be taken along at the same time if they share a route.

Long-distance buses

In March 2018, the Leipzig Long-Distance Bus Terminal opened a few steps outside of the Hauptbahnhof building on its east side. In addition to a large number of national lines, several international lines also serve Leipzig. The cities of Bregenz, Budapest, Milan, Prague, Sofia and Zurich, among others, can be reached without having to change trains. Around 30,000 journeys and 1.5 million passengers a year are expected at the new bus station. Some lines also use Leipzig/Halle Airport, located at the A 9/A 14 motorway junction, and Leipziger Messe for a stop. Passengers can take the S-Bahn from there to the city centre.

Air

Leipzig/Halle Airport is the international commercial airport of the region. It is located at the Schkeuditzer Kreuz junction northwest of Leipzig, halfway between the two major cities. The easternmost section of the new Erfurt-Leipzig/Halle line under construction gave the airport a long-distance railway station, which was also integrated into the ICE network when the railway line was completed in 2015. Passenger flights are operated to and from the major German hub airports, European metropolises and holiday destinations, especially to the Mediterranean region and North Africa. The airport is of international importance in the cargo sector. In Germany, it ranks second behind Frankfurt am Main, fifth in Europe and 26th worldwide (as of 2011).

uses the airport as its central European hub. It is also the home base of the freight airlines Aerologic and

European Air Transport Leipzig European Air Transport Leipzig GmbH – often shortened to EAT Leipzig or EAT-LEJ – is a German cargo airline with its head office and main hub on the grounds of Leipzig/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, Saxony. It is wholly owned by Deutsche Po ...

. The former military airport near

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

, Thuringia, called Leipzig-Altenburg Airport, about a half-hour drive from Leipzig, was served by

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

until 2010.

Water

In the first half of the 20th century, the construction of the Elster-Saale canal,

, and

was started in Leipzig in order to connect to the network of waterways. The outbreak of the Second World War stopped most of the work, though some may have continued through the use of

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

. The Lindenauer port was almost completed but not yet connected to the Elster-Saale and Karl Heine Canal respectively. The Leipzig rivers (White Elster, New Luppe, Pleiße, and Parthe) in the city have largely artificial river beds and are supplemented by some channels. These waterways are suitable only for small leisure boat traffic. Through the renovation and reconstruction of existing

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...

s and watercourses in the south of the city and flooded disused open cast mines, the city's navigable water network is being expanded. A link between Karl Heine Canal and the disused Lindenauer port was opened in 2015. Still more work was scheduled to complete the Elster-Saale canal. Such a move would allow small boats to reach the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

from Leipzig. The intended completion date has been postponed because of an unacceptable cost-benefit ratio. File:Leipzig NGT12-LEI Waldplatz defekt.jpg, Tram of Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe File:Leipzig Georg-Schumann-Strasse.jpg, Tramsystem at the Georg-Schumann-Straße File:S-Bahnhof Leipzig Markt.jpg, Leipzig City Tunnel, part of Leipzig's new

network File:S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland. Talent 2,027, Innenansicht Sitze.jpg, Inside the S-Bahn train

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'' ''Ich komme nach Leipzig, an den Ort, wo man die ganze Welt im Kleinen sehen kann.'' ("I'm coming to Leipzig, to the place where one can see the whole world in miniature.") –

''Extra Lipsiam vivere est miserrime vivere.'' ("To live outside Leipzig is to live miserably.") – Benedikt Carpzov the Younger ''Das angenehme Pleis-Athen, Behält den Ruhm vor allen, Auch allen zu gefallen, Denn es ist wunderschön.'' ("The pleasurable Pleiss-Athens, earns its fame above all, appealing to every one, too, for it is mightily beauteous.") – Johann Sigismund Scholze

Twin towns – sister cities

Leipzig is twinned with: *

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

, Ethiopia (2004) *

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, United Kingdom (1992) *

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, Italy (1962, renewed in 1997) *

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, Czech Republic (1973, renewed in 1999) *

, Germany (1990) *

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, Germany (1987) *

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, Israel (2010) *

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, Vietnam (2021) *

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, United States (1993) *

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, Poland (1973, renewed in 1995) *

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, Ukraine (1961, renewed in 1992) *

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France (1981) *

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, China (1988) *

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, Greece (1984) *

Travnik Travnik ( cyrl, Травник) is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the administrative center of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2003)

Notable people

Politicians

* Nikolaus Krell (1551–1601), chancellor of the

elector of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

* Friedrich Karl Biedermann (1812–1901), professor, politician and publisher * Louise Otto-Peters (1819–1895), suffragette, founded the German Women's Association *

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Bebel, a woodworker by trade, co-founded the Sa ...

(1840–1913), socialist politician, co-founder of Germany's SPD * Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919), socialist, co-founded the Communist Party of Germany * Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (1884–1945), mayor, a lead conservative resistance against Hitler *

Paul Frölich Paul Frölich (7 August 1884 – 16 March 1953) was a German journalist and author. As a left-wing political activist, he was a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and founder of the party's paper, ''Die Rote Fahne''. A KPD de ...

(1884–1953), politician, KPD co-founder, biographer of

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; ; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar republic, Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development ...

(1893–1973), Communist politician, GDR Chairman of the Council of State, 1960–1973 * Ruth Fischer (1895–1961), Communist politician and journalist, co-founder of the CPA * Annemarie Renger (1919–2008), politician, President of the Bundestag, 1972 to 1976 * Käte Selbmann (1906–1962), teacher and Communist politician * Matthias Moosdorf (born 1965), politician and cellist

Philosophers and theologians

(1646–1716), philosopher, scientist, mathematician and diplomat * Johann Friedrich Mayer (1650–1712), Lutheran theologian * Christian Thomasius (1655–1728), jurist and philosopher * Wilhelm Abraham Teller (1734–1804), Protestant theologian with a rational approach *

Franz Delitzsch Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of J ...

(1813–1890), Lutheran theologian and Hebraist * Christian Daniel Beck (1757–1832), philologist, historian, theologian and antiquarian * Georg Benedikt Winer (1789–1858), Protestant theologian, known for linguistic studies of the New Testament * Christian Hermann Weisse (1801–1866), Protestant theologian and philosopher

Writing and arts

Johann Albert Fabricius Johann Albert Fabricius (11 November 1668 – 30 April 1736) was a German classical scholar and bibliographer. Biography Fabricius was born in Leipzig, son of Werner Fabricius, director of music in the church of St. Paul at Leipzig, who was the ...

(1668–1736), classical scholar and bibliographer *

(1685–1750), composer * Johann Gottfried Donati (1706–1782), composer *

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German composer and musician of the Baroque and Classical period. He was the fifth ch ...

(1714–1788), Classical period musician and composer *

Johann Christian Bach Johann Christian Bach (5 September 1735 – 1 January 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He received his early musical training from his father, and later from his half-brother, Carl ...

(1735–1782), composer, youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach *

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (4 May 1772 – 20 August 1823) was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the '' Conversations-Lexikon'', which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia. Biography Brockhaus was edu ...

(1772–1823), publisher. He originated the Brockhaus encyclopedia. * Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (1772–1848), classical scholar and philologist * Karl Wilhelm Dindorf (1802–1883), classical scholar *

(1809–1847), composer, pianist, organist and conductor *

(1810–1856), composer and music critic * Thekla Friedländer (born 1849), soprano and social reformer * Roderich Benedix (1811–1873), dramatist and librettist * Theodor Bergk (1812–1881), philologist, an authority on classical Greek poetry *

(1813–1883), composer, theatre director and conductor * Clara Schumann (1819–1896), pianist and composer * Carl Johann Lasch (1822–1888), painter * Carl Reinecke (1824–1910), composer, conductor and pianist * Emma Kirchner (1830–1909) early German woman photographer who lived and worked in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. * Arthur Prüfer (1860–1944), musicologist *

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, drawing, draftsman, printmaker, sculpture, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the m ...

(1884–1950), expressionist painter, professor at art academies and schools * Wilhelm Backhaus (1884–1969), pianist * Karl Alfred Pabst (1884–1971), painter, graphic artist and lithographer * Hanns Eisler (1898–1962), composer of the national anthem of the GDR * Bruno Apitz (1900–1979), writer * Wolfgang Weber (1902–1985), photojournalist * Hans Mayer (1907–2001), literary scholar * Kurt Masur (1927–2015), conductor of the

* Herbert Blomstedt (born 1927), conductor of the

Werner Tübke Werner Tübke (30 July 1929 in Schönebeck, Germany – 27 May 2004 in Leipzig, Germany) was a German painter, best known for his monumental Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany, Peasants' War Panorama located in Bad Frankenhausen. Associated wi ...

(1929–2004), painter *

Hans-Joachim Schulze Hans-Joachim Schulze (born 3 December 1934) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who served as the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig from 1992 to 2000. With Christoph Wolff, he was editor of the ''Bach-Jahrbuch'' (Bach yearbook) from 19 ...

(born 1934), Bach scholar * Riccardo Chailly (born 1953), conductor of the

* Neo Rauch (born 1960), painter * Till Lindemann (born 1963), vocalist, lead singer of

* Simone Thomalla (born 1965), actress * Matthias Weischer (born 1973), painter * Oskar Lenz (1848–1925), explorer and travel writer * Hans Meyer (1858–1929), geographer, Africanist and mountaineer *

Martin Broszat Martin Broszat (14 August 1926 – 14 October 1989) was a German historian specializing in modern German social history. As director of the '' Institut für Zeitgeschichte'' (Institute for Contemporary History) in Munich from 1972 until his ...

(1926–1989), historian, head of

Institut für Zeitgeschichte The Institute of Contemporary History (''Institut für Zeitgeschichte'') in Munich was conceived in 1947 under the name ''Deutsches Institut für Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Zeit'' ("German Institute of the History of the National Socia ...

in Munich * Ruth Pfau (1929–2017), nun, physician and writer * Christian Gottfried Körner (1756–1831), jurist and writer * Sebastian Krumbiegel (1966–), singer and musician * Tobias Künzel (1964–), singer and musician * Bill Kaulitz (1989-), singer, songwriter, and musician * Tom Kaulitz (1989-), guitarist and musician

Science and business

* Michael Ettmüller (1644–1683), physician * Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (1652–1723), physician and botanist * Friedrich Boerner (1723–1761), physician *

Carl Gustav Carus Carl Gustav Carus (3 January 1789 – 28 July 1869) was a German physiologist and painter, born in Leipzig, who played various roles during the Romanticism, Romantic era. A friend of the writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a ...

(1789–1869), doctor, painter and natural philosopher * Wilhelm Hofmeister (1824–1877), biologist and botanist * Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880), chemist * Karl Wittgenstein (1847–1913), entrepreneur * Kurt Herrmann (1888–1959), architect, publisher and entrepreneur * Sibylle Kemmler-Sack (1934–1999), chemist

War figures

* Elfriede Rinkel (1922–2018), warden of a concentration camp during the Nazi dictatorship * Karl Eberhard Schöngarth (1903–1946), SS officer and war criminal, executed in Hamelin * Wilhelm Souchon (1864–1946), admiral in World War I

Sport

* Karl Rudolf Heydel (1911–1936), racing driver * Marvin Kirchhöfer (born 1994), racing driver * René Müller (born 1959), footballer *

Kristin Otto Kristin Otto (; born 7 February 1966) is a former German swimmer, becoming Olympic, World and European champion, multiple times. She is most famous for being the first woman to win six gold medals at a single Olympic Games, doing so at the 1988 ...

(born 1966), swimmer, six-time Olympic gold medalist, and sports journalist * Tony Schmidt (born 1980), racing driver * Rita Wilden (born 1947), sprinter * Arthur ''Saxon'' Hennig (born 1871), strongman, circus performer, world's strongest man

Notes

References

External links

The city's official website

Leipzig as virtual city 408 Points of Interest – English

The Leipzig Glocal
, English language webzine and blog publishing regularly
Ubiquity Theatre Company
– English language theatre projects in Leipzig *
Leipzig Zeitgeist
', an English magazine about Leipzig
This is Leipzig
, an English web site for Leipzig
Events in Leipzig
��Music festivals in Leipzig * * {{Authority control Cities in Saxony Urban districts of Saxony