Augusteum (University of Leipzig)

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The New Augusteum, the main building of Leipzig University with a main entrance. In the background the Paulinum

The New Augusteum is a building of the University of Leipzig on Augustusplatz . It was built as part of the new campus since construction began in 2007 and was completed in 2012. A building of the same name on the same place was the main building of the University of Leipzig in the 19th century and until it was blown up in 1968. The new Augusteum building is not based on the historical building, only the location, name and neighborhood to the Paulinum are the same.

The New Augusteum is adjacent to the new Paulinum building - the assembly hall and St. Pauli University Church , the spiritual and spiritual center of the university. The new Augusteum is the main building of the university and houses the maximum auditorium .

history

The Augusteum in the 19th century

  • Augusteum and Paulinerkirche around 1890 before the redesign

  • The Augusteum in 1898 after its redesign.

The building on the west side of Leipzig's Augustusplatz adjoined the Paulinerkirche on the left. The building was erected between 1831 and 1836 according to plans by Albert Geutebrück . The facade was based on a classicist design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . The building reached its capacity limits as early as the 1870s, as the university had grown rapidly due to the rapid urban development during this time.

From 1892 to 1897 the building was rebuilt and generously extended by Arwed Rossbach . The Augusteum, which originally only formed the main front to Augustusplatz, was given a south ( 1895 ), a central and a west wing ( 1896 ) when the old Paulinum and the buildings in the inner courtyard were demolished . These parts of the building were given the names Johanneum , Albertinum and Paulinum. The renovation also included a stylistic adjustment to other representative buildings on Augustusplatz. Paulinerkirche and Augusteum also received neo-renaissance and neo-Gothic facades according to plans by Rossbach .

Blasted during the GDR era

Augusteum and Paulinerkirche around 1947

As a result of the air raids on Leipzig in World War II , parts of the Augusteum were badly damaged, along with other university buildings. At about the same time as the ruins of the Potsdam garrison church , the SED leadership decided that on May 30, 1968, in addition to the completely intact Pauline Church, the Augusteum was also blown up, which by today's standards could easily have been saved. Since, in the opinion of the GDR leadership, both buildings did not fit the ideology of a socialist university, a new university complex was built on the cleared site in functional, sober GDR architecture by 1975. In place of the main wing of the Augusteum, a rectorate building was erected until 1971.

The Augusteum as part of the new university campus

The Schinkeltor : The former entrance portal and today's inner courtyard access to the New Augusteum
Interior of the New Augusteum.
Fully occupied auditorium during the International Degrowth Conference 2014

After reunification, the citizens' initiative for the reconstruction of the University Church and Augusteum in Leipzig eV committed itself to the restoration of the old university ensemble. After years of disputes, an agreement was reached that was supposed to abandon the reconstruction efforts in favor of the university's requirements for modern facilities for teaching and research on the inner-city campus . The design for a new campus developed by Erick van Egeraat is reminiscent of the Pauline Church with parts of the facade and a correspondingly designed auditorium. He takes up the Augusteum as the historic main university building in his design in the form of the portico and the north wing, but as a free quote and in modern material. Completion of the building was originally planned for 2009, but it was not completed until 2012.

The New Augusteum is the new main building of the university and is home to the Auditorium maximum, the main lecture hall, with 800 seats. The building also houses the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, university offices, a gallery and the new interpreter training system of the Institute for Applied Linguistics and Translatology.

On December 2, 2011, the new building was presented to the public for the first time in a festive event. After delays, the building was to be handed over to the university in the 2012 summer semester. The university data center has been located on the first and second floors since June 2012, the maximum auditorium was handed over in summer and the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science moved in in September 2012.

The Schinkeltor of the old Augusteum was integrated into the new building. The classical entrance portal is the only surviving testimony to the architecture of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in Leipzig. It was the main entrance of the first Augusteum building until the Augusteum was redesigned in the 1890s, when it was converted into the southern courtyard entrance. In 1981 the reconstructed portal was set up between the lecture hall and seminar building complex of the new Karl Marx University. The gate was dismantled in June 2004 as part of the construction work on the new campus. In 2009 it was then set up again at the newly built Leibniz Forum and integrated into the New Augusteum. It now functions as the entrance to the building from the courtyard.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b University of Leipzig: An overview of the campus. New Augusteum. ( Memento of September 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Last accessed: August 11, 2012)
  2. ↑ MDR (December 2, 2011): Largest university building in Saxony. Still unanswered questions at the Leipzig Augusteum. ( Memento of December 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Freie Presse (December 2nd, 2011): University of Leipzig gets the largest lecture hall in Saxony ( Memento from August 1st, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). (Last accessed: December 4, 2011)
  4. ↑ Leipziger Internet Zeitung: Three years of delay: The new Augusteum at the University of Leipzig is now going into operation in stages , April 4, 2012, accessed on May 2, 2012
  5. ^ University of Leipzig (June 10, 2004): Press release "The Schinkel Gate goes and comes again". (Accessed March 19, 2010).

literature

Web links

Commons : Augusteum (Leipzig)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Neues Augusteum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 18.8 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 45.8 ″  E