Leipzig

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Leipzig
Town
St Thomas' Church in the evening.
St Thomas' Church in the evening.
Coat of arms of Leipzig
Coat of arms
Location of Leipzig
Map
CountryGermany
StateSaxony
Admin. regionLeipzig
DistrictLeipzig
Government
 • MayorBurkhard Jung (SPD)
Area
 • Total297.60 km2 (114.90 sq mi)
Population
 (2006-12)
 • Total506,578
 • Density1,700/km2 (4,400/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
04003-04357
Dialling codes0341
Vehicle registrationL
Websitewww.leipzig.de

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File:Map of Leipzig.png
A map from Meyers Encyclopedia depicting the Battle of Leipzig on October 18 1813.

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File:DSCN0353.JPG
Leipzig Old City

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Atrium of the "Academy of Visual Arts".

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"Porsche Diamond" The customer center building of Porsche Leipzig.

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MDR, one of Germany's public broadcasters.

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City-Hochhaus Leipzig.

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Mädler-Passage, one of Leipzig's many passageways.

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New Trade Fair.

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Palais Roßbach, one of the many Gründerzeit-buildings in Leipzig

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Inside Leipzig Hbf (Central Rail Station).

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The Federal Administrative Court of Leipzig at night

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leipzig.

Template:FixHTML Leipzig ([ˈlaɪ̯pʦɪç]ⓘ) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Rivers Pleiße, White Elster and Parthe. Template:TOCnestright Leipzig is well-known for its university and its trade fair. Germany's first labour party was founded in the city.

Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the linden trees (US; lime trees in UK) stand".[1] An obsolete English spelling of the name was Leipsic.

History

First documented in 1015 and endowed with city and market privileges in 1165, Leipzig has fundamentally shaped the history of Saxony and of Germany. Leipzig has always been known as a place of commerce. The Leipzig Trade Fair, which began in the Middle Ages, is the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. It became an event of international importance, especially as a point of contact with the Comecon Eastern Europe economic bloc, of which East Germany was a member.

The foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409 initiated the city's development into a centre of German law and the publishing industry, and towards being a location of the Reichsgericht (Supreme Court), and the German National Library (founded in 1912). The philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born in Leipzig in 1646, and attended the University of Leipzig from 1661-1666. Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, at the St. Thomas Lutheran church, and Richard Wagner the composer was born in Leipzig in 1813. Later in the same year, the Leipzig region was the arena of the Battle of the Nations, which ended Napoleon's run of conquest in Europe, and led to his first exile on Elba. In 1913 the Völkerschlachtdenkmal monument celebrating the centenary of this event was completed.

The importance of the Trade Fair and the University in the creation of a vibrant urban life and city politics from the Reformation through the 19th century cannot be overestimated. Leipzig became a centre of the German and Saxon liberal movements.

A terminal of the first German long distance railroad to Dresden (the capital of Saxony), in 1839, Leipzig became a hub of Central European railroad traffic, with a renowned station building, the largest terminal station by area in Europe.

Leipzig around 1900.

Leipzig expanded rapidly towards one million inhabitants. Huge Gründerzeit areas were built, which mostly survived the war and post-war demolition. Nowadays these areas are unique in modern Germany. [citation needed]

The first German labour party, the General German Workers' Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein, ADAV) was founded in Leipzig on 23 May 1863 by Ferdinand Lassalle; about 600 workers from across Germany travelled to the foundation on the new railway line.

On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht, Nazis destroyed Jewish synagogues and establishments all over Germany. A U.S. official in Leipzig described what he saw of the atrocities. "Having demolished dwellings and hurled most of the moveable effects to the streets," he wrote, "the insatiably sadistic perpetrators threw many of the trembling inmates into a small stream that flows through the zoological park, commanding horrified spectators to spit at them, defile them with mud and jeer at their plight." [citation needed]

The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II.

American troops of the 69th Infantry Division captured the city on April 20 1945, Adolf Hitler's 56th and last birthday. A few months later the U.S. ceded the city to the Red Army as it pulled back from the line of contact with Soviet forces in July 1945 to the pre-designated occupation zone boundaries. Leipzig became one of the major cities of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

In 1989, after prayers for peace at the Nikolai Church, established in 1983 as part of the peace movement, the Monday demonstrations started as the most prominent mass protest against the East German regime.

Leipzig was the German candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics, but did not make it to the short list.

Main sights

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

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

Education

Leipzig University, founded 1409, is one of Europe's oldest universities. Nobel Prize laureate Werner Heisenberg worked here as a physics professor (from 1927 to 1942), as did Nobel Prize laureates Gustav Ludwig Hertz (physics), Wilhelm Ostwald (chemistry) and Theodor Mommsen (Nobel Prize in literature). Other former staff of faculty include mineralogist Georg Agricola, writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, philosopher Ernst Bloch, eccentric founder of psychophysics Gustav Theodor Fechner, and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. Among the university's many noteworthy students were writers Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Erich Kästner, philosophers Gottfried Leibniz and Friedrich Nietzsche, political activist Karl Liebknecht, and composer Richard Wagner. Germany's chancellor since 2006, Angela Merkel, studied physics at Leipzig University. The university has about 30,000 students.

The University of Music and Theatre was established in 1843 as a music conservatory. One of its founders was renowned composer Felix Mendelssohn. A broad range of subjects can be studied, both artistic and teacher training, in all orchestral instruments, voice, interpretation, coaching, piano chamber music, orchestral conducting, choir conducting and musical composition. Musical styles include jazz, popular music, musicals, early music and church music. The drama departments teach acting and dramaturgy. Advanced students may, after a test, stand in for members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 2006, approximately 900 students are enrolled at the school.

The "Academy of Visual Arts" (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst) was established 1764. Its 530 students (as of 2006) are enrolled in courses in painting and graphics, book design/graphic design, photography and media art. The school also houses an Institute for Theory.

The "Leipzig University of Applied Sciences" (Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur, HTWK) is with about 6200 students (as of 2007) the second biggest institution of higher education in Leipzig. It was founded in 1992, merging several older schools. As a university of applied sciences (German: Fachhochschule) it is slightly below the status of a university, with more emphasis on the practical part of the education. The HTWK offers many engineering courses, as well as courses of computer sciences, mathematics, business administration, library sciences, museum studies, and social work. It is mainly located in the south of the city.

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

Among the research institutes located in Leipzig three belong to the Max Planck Society (for Mathematics in the Sciences, Human Cognitive and Brain Science and Evolutionary Anthropology) and two are Fraunhofer Society institutes. Others are the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, part of the Helmholtz Association, and the Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research.

Economy

Companies in or around Leipzig include:

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

Media

  • MDR, one of Germany's public broadcasters, has its headquarters and main television studios in the city. It provides programs to various TV and radio networks and has its own symphony orchestra, choir and a ballet.
  • Leipziger Volkszeitung (LVZ) is the city's only daily newspaper. Founded in 1894, it has published under several different forms of government. It was the first newspaper in the world that was published daily. The monthly magazine Kreuzer specializes on culture, festivities and the arts in Leipzig.
  • Once known for its large number of publishing houses, Leipzig had been called "Buch-Stadt" (book city). [citation needed] Few are left after the years of the German Democratic Republic, the most notable of them being branches of Brockhaus and Insel Verlag. Reclam, founded in 1828, was one of the large publishing houses to move away. The German Library (Deutsche Bücherei) in Leipzig is part of Germany's National Library.

Annual events

Sport

The German Football Association (DFB) was founded in Leipzig in 1900.

The city was the venue for the 2006 FIFA World Cup draw, and hosted four first-round matches and one match in the last 16th round in the football club FC Sachsen Leipzig's home stadium Zentralstadion.

Leipzig also hosted the Fencing World Cup in 2005 and hosts a number of international competitions in a variety of sports each year.

VfB Leipzig, now 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, won the first national football championship in 1903.

Transportation

Leipzig station is at a junction of important north-to-south and west-to-east railway lines. In the vicinity of the city are two airports: Leipzig/Halle Airport and Altenburg-Nobitz Airport.

Quotations

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

Twin cities

Leipzig is twinned with:

Notable residents

See also

References

  1. ^ Hanswilhelm Haefs. Das 2. Handbuch des nutzlosen Wissens. ISBN 3831137544 Template:De icon
  2. ^ Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963.

External links

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