Moritzbastei
The Moritzbastei is the only remaining part of Leipzig's city fortifications . From 1979 to 1993 it was operated by the University of Leipzig as their student club . Since 1993 it has been managed as a cultural center by a GmbH on behalf of the Moritzbastei Leipzig Foundation .
Prehistory of the building
The Moritzbastei was built as a bastion under the direction of Hieronymus Lotter in the years 1551–1554 after the previous building was destroyed in the Schmalkaldic War and named after the Elector Moritz of Saxony .
After it was stormed for the first time in the Thirty Years 'War , the Moritzbastei lost its military function in the Seven Years' War . From then on, it served as a warehouse for trade goods and as a workplace for bell-makers, sulfur pullers and book printers.
From 1796 to 1834, the citizens' school was built on the walls of the destroyed Moritzbastei by the architects Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe and August Wilhelm Kanne in two construction phases. During the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig (1813), wounded Russian soldiers were housed in the first completed construction phase of the school. In 1848 the Leipzig Art Association opened the city's first art museum in part of the building . In 1875 the citizen school was converted into a "high school for women's professions". It was named “St. Anne School ”.
During the Second World War , the school was destroyed by a bomb attack. Rubble and remains of the destroyed building were poured into the vaults of the bastion. A hill overgrown with bushes and young trees was built on the site of the former Moritzbastei.
Moritzbastei as a student club
In 1973/1974, while looking for suitable rooms for a student club, students discovered the remains of the Moritzbastei. They convinced the university and the city to rebuild.
In 1974 the Moritzbastei was handed over to the students of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig . Around 40,000 cubic meters of rubble were removed in 150,000 unpaid hours of work . 30,000 students worked on the Moritzbastei during the construction phase, including the later Chancellor Angela Merkel .
On December 1, 1979, the "first construction phase", today's upper cellar, was put into operation. On February 5, 1982, the entire building was handed over to the Karl Marx University of Leipzig as “Europe's largest student club”. At the time of the fall of the Wall , the Moritzbastei was operated by the FDJ and became a space for encounters. Students organized forums, round tables and cultural events.
In the course of the university reform in Saxony in 1992, the Moritzbastei was spun off from the University of Leipzig and since then has no longer been part of the Leipzig clubs run by students or maintained by the Studentenwerk .
Moritzbastei since 1993
Moritzbastei Betriebs GmbH has been managing Moritzbastei as one of the largest cultural centers in Saxony on behalf of the Moritzbastei Foundation since 1993 . The foundation's mission is to cultivate and preserve student and academic culture in Leipzig. The chairman of the Moritzbastei Foundation is a born member of the respective rector of the University of Leipzig, currently Beate Schücking . The city of Leipzig as the owner of the building, the Free State of Saxony and representatives of the University of Leipzig and the student body have control tasks on the foundation's board of trustees.
The Moritzbastei operation GmbH operates without public subsidies. Individual cultural projects are funded by the City of Leipzig Cultural Office.
In recent years, artists from all over the world have made guest appearances here, but the Moritzbastei has also worked with regional projects. The proportion of the student audience is high, over 100 students work in the "MB".
Web links
- The Moritzbastei
- Drug craze on the permanent construction site - one day articleabout reconstruction
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 14 " N , 12 ° 22 ′ 45" E