Leipzig

Leipzig
Battle Of The Nations Monument (Völkerschlachtdenkmal)
Battle Of The Nations Monument (Völkerschlachtdenkmal)
Coat of arms Location
Coat of arms of Leipzig
Leipzig (Germany)
Leipzig
Administration
Country Germany
State Saxony
Admin. region Leipzig
District Leipzig
Mayor Burkhard Jung (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area 297.60 km² (114.9 sq mi)
Population 511,252  (26/04/2008)
 - Density 1,718 /km² (4,449 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate L
Postal codes 04003-04357
Area code 0341
Website www.leipzig.de
Location of the town of Leipzig within Leipzig district
Map
A map from Meyers Encyclopedia depicting the Battle of Leipzig on 18 October 1813.
Leipzig Old City
Atrium of the "Academy of Visual Arts".
"Porsche Diamond" The customer centre building of Porsche Leipzig.
MDR, one of Germany's public broadcasters.
City-Hochhaus Leipzig.
Mädler-Passage, one of Leipzig's many passageways.
New Trade Fair.
Palais Roßbach, one of the many Gründerzeit-buildings in Leipzig
Inside Leipzig Hbf (Central Railway Station).
The Federal Administrative Court of Germany at night
Leipzig Neues Rathaus

Leipzig ([ˈlaɪ̯pt͡sɪç], Upper Sorbian: Lipsk) is, with a population of over 511,252[1], the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.

Contents

History

see also Category:People from Leipzig

Origins

Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the linden trees (US; lime trees in UK) stand".[2]

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.

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 (High 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.

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.

The nineteenth century

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.

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

Leipzig became a centre of the German and Saxon liberal movements. 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.

The twentieth century

The city's mayor from 1930 to 1937, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was a noted opponent of the Nazi regime in Germany. He resigned in 1937 when, in his absence, his Nazi deputy ordered the destruction of the city's statue of Felix Mendelssohn. On Kristallnacht in 1938, one of the city's most architecturally significant buildings, the 1855 Moorish Revival Leipzig synagogue was deliberately destroyed.

The city was also heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II. American troops of the 69th Infantry Division captured the city on 20 April 1945, Adolf Hitler's 56th and last birthday. The U.S. turned over 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.

In the mid-twentieth century, the city's Trade Fair assumed renewed importance as a point of contact with the Comecon Eastern Europe economic bloc, of which East Germany was a member.

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 regime. [3]

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

Music in Leipzig

see also Category:Music from Leipzig

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, in the Brühl. Robert Schumann was also active in Leipzig music, having been invited by Felix Mendelssohn when the latter established Germany's first musical conservatoire in the city in 1843.

This conservatoire is today the University of Music and Theatre. 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. As at 2006, approximately 900 students were enrolled at the school.

The city's musical tradition is also reflected in the worldwide fame of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the choir of the St. Thomas Church.

Main sights

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 Church of St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche) 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 "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:

Many bars, restaurants and stores found in the "centre city" region rely on German and foreign tourists. The railway station itself is the location of one of the largest shopping centres.

Some of the largest employers in the area (outside of manufacturing) include the various schools and universities in and around the Leipzig/Halle region. The University of Leipzig attracts millions of Euros of investment yearly and is in the middle of a massive construction and refurbishment in order to celebrate their 600th anniversary.

DHL is in the process of transferring the bulk of its European air operations from Brussels Airport to Leipzig/Halle Airport. The airport is also a major source of income for the area and offers many flights daily through Lufthansa, Germany's main carrier.

Media

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.

Two-time World Cup Uneven Bars Champion and Olympic Medalist (1976, 1980) in gymnastics, Steffi Kraker was born in Leipzig.

Transportation

Leipzig Central station is at a junction of important north-to-south and west-to-east railway lines. An underground connecting line has been driven along the north-south axis. In the vicinity of the city are two airports: Leipzig/Halle Airport and Leipzig-Altenburg Airport (Thuringia).

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:

See also

References

  1. ↑ www.statistik.sachsen.de
  2. ↑ Hanswilhelm Haefs. Das 2. Handbuch des nutzlosen Wissens. ISBN 3831137544 (German)
  3. ↑ David Brebis (ed.), Michelin guide to Germany, Greenville (2006), p. 324. ISBN 086699077417
  4. ↑ AMI - Auto Mobil International, Leipziger Messe
  5. ↑ AMITEC - Fachmesse für Fahrzeugteile, Werkstatt und Service, Leipziger Messe

External links