Leipzig

Its Latin name is Lipsia and the German name "Leipzig" came from this name. Leipzig has a long history. Its name was first recorded as Leipzig Castle (Leipziger Burg) in 1015, and the official founding of the city occurred later in 1165. It was an economic center of Medieval Germany, famous with its market (Leipziger Messe).

In 1409, Leipzig University was started. Theology was its major faculty. In 1519, Martin Luther had a discussion in Leipzig against Johann Eck. Reformation came to Leipzig in 1539 and the city people became Lutheran.

It is famous for St. Thomas Church, where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as music director (Kantor) from 1723 until his death in 1750.

In 1813 near Leipzig, the Battle of Leipzig was fought between the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the allied armies of Austria, Prussia and Russia.

In 1839, the railway between Dresden and Leipzig was opened. It was the first long distance railroad in Germany.

As a result of industrialization, the number of people living in Leipzig grew during the 19th century. Before World War II, there were about 750,000 people in Leipzig.

After the war, Leipzig belonged to the part of Germany occupied by the Soviet Union, and later to East Germany.

In 1989, the Monday Demonstrations took place in Leipzig. Every monday after a Christian mass in the Nikolaikirche the Leipzig people demonstrate for freedom to travel and democracy. These demonstrations became bigger and bigger and reached their peak on 23 October when 320,000 people came. The demonstrations are one of the things that lead to the end of communist dictatorship in East Germany.

Today, Leipzig is still known as a city of fairs, media and university, but is less important than it was before World War II.

Before World War II, Leipzig was a famous center of commerce (Leipzig exhibition) and industry. Now, there are big companies in Leipzig like Porsche, BMW, Siemens and DHL, as well as the Leipzig Airport.

With almost 511,000 people, Leipzig city proper is the 12th biggest city in Germany and the 2nd biggest in what was East Germany (DDR), smaller than East Berlin and bigger than Dresden. Leipzig urban has 567,000 people. The total population of Leipzig metropolitan area is 1,389,000.

Leipzig, Chemnitz, Dresden, Halle, and Zwickau form an area called the Saxon Triangle, which has about 3,500,000 people.

Leipzig has a university where famous people studied (e.g. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Edvard Grieg, Erich Kästner, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Angela Merkel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner.) The Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is the biggest terminal station in Europe. It sees about 150,000 passengers each day. It is 293 meters wide.

•   Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since 2004
•   Birmingham, UK, since 1992^[2]
•   Bologna, Italy, since 1962, renewed in 1997
•   Brno, Czech Republic, since 1973, renewed in 1999^[3]
•   Frankfurt am Main, Germany, since 1990^[4]
•   Hanover, Germany, since 1987^[5]
•   Houston, United States, since 1993
•   Kyiv, Ukraine, since 1961, renewed in 1992
•   Lyon, France, since 1981</^[6]
•   Nanjing, China, since 1988
•   Plovdiv, Bulgaria, since 1975, renewed in 2007
•   Thessaloniki, Greece, since 1984^[7]
•   Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 2003
•   Herzliya, Israel, since 2010

1. ↑ "Einwohnerzahlen nach Gemeinden als Excel-Arbeitsmappe" (XLS) (in German). Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen. 2024.
2. ↑ "Partner Cities". Birmingham City Council. Archived from the original on 2009-09-15. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
3. ↑ "Brno - Partnerská města" (in Czech). City of Brno. Archived from the original on 2011-05-23. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
4. ↑ "Frankfurt -Partner Cities". Stadt Frankfurt am Main. Archived from the original on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
5. ↑ "Hanover - Twin Towns" (in German). Offizielles Portal der Landeshauptstadt und der Region Hannover in Zusammenarbeit mit hier.de. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
6. ↑ "Partner Cities of Lyon and Greater Lyon". © 2008 Mairie de Lyon. Archived from the original on 2009-07-19. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
7. ↑ "Twinning Cities". City of Thessaloniki. Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2009-07-07.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leipzig.

• Official website   (in German)