This city knows how to surprise: “Boomtown”, “Heipzig” (from the word “hype”), a traditional city of fairs, exhibitions and the place where great composers worked – all this is Leipzig! One could find many epithets for this city. But the best way to experience the real Leipzig is to immerse yourself in the atmosphere and experience the wonderful combination of urban culture and wealth of ideas. It shapes the city, attracting numerous artists. But Leipzig also has a long and colorful history; Here the past and the present are united in an amazing way.
What made Leipzig what it is today is the university, fairs and music. The University of Leipzig was founded in 1409 by students and teachers who fled here from Charles University in Prague after local unrest. This is the second oldest university in Germany (after Heidelberg), which, moreover, has never interrupted its activities. Fairs appeared here in the 12th century: important roads to Silesia and the Baltic Sea passed through the city. Fairs were held three times a year, had imperial status and were very famous in Europe. By the end of the 19th century they had become design fairs and were associated with industry, and now seem to cover all areas of life from reading and sports to medicine and the automobile industry. Finally, music: Bach and Mendelssohn, Clara and Robert Schumann lived here – and now important music festivals of all styles take place here. But these are not all the reasons to come to Leipzig.
Leipzig’s market place, for many centuries the center of city life, is dominated by the Old Town Hall, a Renaissance building erected in 1556 and considered one of the finest Renaissance buildings in Germany. The tower with its Baroque crown is positioned asymmetrically above the main entrance, above which is a covered balcony used for public proclamations, often attended by trumpeters in traditional costume.
The colonnades along the facade were built in 1907, replacing the wooden shops and stalls that once stood here, but shops can still be found under the arcades. Inside the town hall is a museum with artifacts and photographs from Leipzig’s history, from medieval fairs to the 1989 “peaceful revolution”.
To the southwest of the Leipzig Market stands the Church of St. Thomas, home of the world-famous St. Thomas Choir. The choir dates from 1212, when the church was built. Originally an Augustinian monastery, St. Thomas’s Church was rebuilt in later centuries and, in the 15th century, took on the form of a church in the late Gothic style popular in Upper Saxony.
Martin Luther preached here in 1539, and the church choir became a center of Protestant church music. Regular choral and organ concerts, the fortnightly “Bach Passion” concerts and the Christmas Oratorio attract music lovers to St. Thomas’ Church throughout the year.
Johann Sebastian Bach was choirmaster of the church from 1723 to 1750, and his body is buried here. In the small square in front of the church there was a statue of Bach commemorating his years as choirmaster. Opposite the church is the Bose House, which houses the Bach Research Institute, the Bach Memorial and the Bach Archive.
It is the largest war memorial in Europe and was completed in 1913 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. On this battlefield, some 600,000 soldiers met in the largest battle in Europe before the First World War. Napoleon’s army was decisively defeated and forced to retreat to France, eventually leading to his exile to Elba the following year.
Heroic statues, 12 meters high, surround the monument and its inner chamber, and the 91-metre-high observation deck offers stunning views (it’s a long climb and there’s no lift).
Below the monument is a museum about the Battle of Leipzig, which shows the equipment and military life of the soldiers who fought here. The monument is located 15 minutes by tram from the city center.
Leipzig Zoo is one of the best in Germany. 850 different species of animals live here in almost natural habitats. Here you can watch elephants swim through an underwater glass wall, be greeted by the calls of black howler monkeys, penguins play, watch over alligators in a sandy replica of the Everglades, and timid koalas laze in their own eucalyptus forest.
Despite being located in one of Leipzig’s newest architectural marvels, the Museum of Fine Arts was founded back in 1837 and only moved into its spacious new home in 2004. The museum, one of Germany’s most important national cultural institutions, houses more than 3,500 paintings from the Middle Ages to the present day, including works by Dutch, German and Italian masters.
While the museum displays only a few works by the “great masters” – with the exception of those by Frans Hals and a unique collection of 18 works by two Lucas Cranachs – the collection of more than 400 paintings by 17th-century Dutch artists is unique in the world.
More than 700 German works from the 19th century illustrate the development from classicism through romanticism to impressionism and symbolism. The collection of 55,000 drawings and prints includes works by William Hogarth, Daniel Chodovitsky and Anton von Dyck, while the museum houses the definitive collection of works of all genres by Max Klinger, including 70 sculptures. The building itself is a 36 meter high glass cube, with some of the larger 3D works placed in the courtyards and terraces. Its design is intended to reflect the traditional Leipzig arcades.
Built in the 12th century, St. Nicholas Church was rebuilt several times over the centuries, most recently in neoclassical style around 1700. The entire interior is white, and its fluted columns rise to capitals from which palm fronts seem to spring back, supporting a jagged ceiling. This is an amazing flourish in a neoclassical interior. Several works by Johann Sebastian Bach, who served as musical director both here and at St. Thomas’s, were premiered here, and the church organ is renowned for being one of the best in Europe.
In the St. Nicholas Churchyard, a memorial echoing the design of the columns and their palm capitals recalls the church’s role as a rallying point for demonstrations against socialist rule in East Germany in 1989. This uprising, known as the Monday demonstrations, began spontaneously and was not planned or organized, in Leipzig after the weekly prayer for peace in St. Nicholas Church on September 4, 1989.
The Mendelssohn House in Leipzig is the only truly surviving home of the great composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Built in 1844 and occupied by the composer and his family since 1845, the house has been restored to its original plans and furnished in the late Biedermeier style popular at the time. His study and music salon display personal belongings, Mendelssohn’s sheet music and watercolors, as well as documents and displays about his life and work.
The dominant feature of Augustusplatz is the 34-storey building of the University of Leipzig with its towering café, the Panoramic Tower – Plate of Art, 110 meters above the city. One of the oldest universities in the world – and the second oldest in Germany – the University of Leipzig was founded in 1409, and more than 60 percent of its buildings were destroyed during World War II.
Today the university houses four museums: the Egyptian Museum, the Museum of Musical Instruments, the Museum of Antiquities, and the University Art Collection with paintings and sculptures dating from the Middle Ages. The Schinkel Gate from 1836 and the preserved entrance building of the old university, the Augusteum, are integrated into the lecture block. Of interest is the old Moritzbastai, a bastion from 1515 and the only relic of the old city fortifications.
