10 largest cities in Germany
Berlin
Hamburg
Munich
Cologne
Frankfurt am Main
Hanover
Dusseldorf
Leipzig
Bremen
Dresden
With around 600,000 inhabitants, Leipzig is the largest city in Saxony. It has an unusually well-preserved historical city center for large German cities and elegant districts from the Wilhelminian era. In addition, it was an industrial center and trade fair city with many passages in the city center, which today invite you to stroll. The city enjoys a worldwide reputation in the field of music and fine arts. The main impetus that led to the peaceful revolution and reunification of Germany (1989/90) came from here. Leipzig is rich in sights, shopping opportunities and one encounters a pronounced nightlife. The university is right in the center.
Districts
Since 1992, Leipzig has consisted of
ten city districts, which in turn are divided into districts. The
statistical districts including the districts, however, have little
in common with the historically grown districts. Therefore, and
because a large part of the sights are concentrated in the center,
it makes more sense to make a spatial and structural subdivision.
center
Core of the city from the main train station via the
city center to the German library in the east and the green belt of
the alluvial forest in the west.
north
mainly residential
and commercial areas. Gohlis, Eutritzsch, Möckern, Mockau, Wahren,
Stahmeln, Lützschena, Wiederitzsch with the New Exhibition Center
and Seehausen.
west
shaped by former industrial areas,
today the center of art, culture and creative industries. All
districts west of the Auwald: Schleußig, Lindenau, Plagwitz,
Leutzsch, Kleinzschocher, Großzschocher, Grünau, Knautkleeberg,
Knauthain, Lausen, Böhlitz-Ehrenberg, Rückmarsdorf, Burghausen,
Miltitz, Knautnaundorf and Hartmannsdorf.
east
mainly
residential areas with a mixed social structure; In recent years,
however, there has been an increasing number of cultural offers and
nightlife options. Neustadt, Neuschönefeld, Reudnitz, Volkmarsdorf,
Anger-Crottendorf, Sellerhausen, Stünz, Stötteritz, Schönefeld,
Abtnaundorf, Paunsdorf, Thekla, Heiterblick, Mölkau, Engelsdorf,
Baalsdorf, Holzhausen, Liebertwolkwitz, Althen, Kleinpösna, Portitz,
Plaußig.
south
is considered the center of a left and
alternative cultural scene. Südvorstadt, Connewitz, Probstheida with
the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, Lößnig, Dölitz, Dosen and
Meusdorf.
geography
Leipzig is located in the Leipzig
lowland bay, one of the southernmost foothills of the North German
lowlands. Here the Parthe and Pleiße (as well as smaller rivers)
flow into the White Elster. The urban area is mostly flat. The poet
Ringelnatz described this in a poem about Leipzig with the words:
“The mountains are so beautiful, so sublime! - But there aren't any
here. ”Only the southeast is slightly hilly (Monarch Hill,
Galgenberg). All other noteworthy elevations are former garbage and
rubble dumps, but they have been renatured to such an extent that
the people of Leipzig now perceive them as parts of the natural
topography and as their "mountains" (e.g. Fockeberg).
In the
middle ages
The city of Leipzig owes its origins to a small
fishing village built around 900, which the Slavs (related to
today's Sorbs) founded at the confluence of the Pleisse and Parthe
rivers and called Lipsk (from lip or lipa, the linden tree). In 1015
the place was first mentioned in a chronicle as urbs Libzi ("City of
Linden"). In 1017 Emperor Heinrich II gave Leipzig to the Merseburg
Abbey. In 1134, Konrad von Wettin exchanged it for his house. The
location of Leipzig at the intersection of two European
long-distance trade routes, the west-eastern Via Regia
(Königsstrasse) from the Rhine to Silesia and the north-southern Via
Imperii (Reichsstrasse) from the Baltic Sea to Italy, favored its
development as a nationally important trading center.
Under
Otto the Rich (1156-89) Leipzig, then numbering 5,000 to 6,000
inhabitants, was expanded and fortified and received city rights by
1170 at the latest. Margrave Dietrich founded the Thomaskloster in
1213 (from which the Thomaskirche has been preserved to this day)
and gave him the patronage of the Leipzig Church. To keep the
citizens hostile to him in check, the margrave had the city wall
razed in 1218 and three permanent castles built.
In place of
the fortress at the Grimmaischer Tor, the Dominican monastery St.
Pauli was founded in 1231 (from which the university church of the
same name later emerged, which was blown up in 1968). During the
reign of Margrave Heinrich III. the city was expanded in 1237 by
laying out the Brühl, the Ritterstrasse, the Nikolaistrasse and part
of the Reichsstrasse. Around this time a merchants' guild was formed
in Leipzig, which was also joined by Italian merchants from
Lombardy. Dietrich the Wise, Margrave von Landsberg, granted Leipzig
the right to mint in 1273.
Margrave Wilhelm II founded a
university on December 4, 1409 on the basis of the establishment
bull of Pope Alexander V. About a thousand German teachers and
students at the University of Prague had previously moved to Leipzig
because they did not agree with King Wenceslaus IV's preference for
the Bohemian nation. From 1415 there was a medical, from 1446 a law
faculty. The courses initially took place in colleges spread across
the city.
In 1454 the moat was drawn around the inner city.
With the new division of the Wettin Lands in 1485 - which was
decided in Leipzig and is therefore called the Leipzig division -
the city fell to the Albertine line.
In modern times
The
so-called Leipzig Colloquium (also known as the Leipzig Disputation)
held in 1519 in the old Pleißenburg between Luther, Karlstadt and
Eck was of great influence for the further development of the
Reformation. The then Duke George the Bearded still forcibly
suppressed Protestant teaching in Leipzig. His brother and successor
Heinrich the Pious (1539–41), however, formally introduced the
Reformation (the university only joined later) and granted the
council the right of patronage over the churches and schools.
After Leipzig was besieged in the Schmalkaldic War in 1547 and
the suburbs were completely cremated, the fortifications were
strengthened and the Pleißenburg and the suburbs rebuilt. Of the
city fortifications, which were renewed from 1551, only the
Moritzbastei remains today. Initiated by Elector August von Sachsen,
many Dutch merchants settled in Leipzig in the second half of the
16th century. Between 1555 and 1573 the merchant Hieronymus Lotter
was repeatedly elected mayor, who also worked as an architect of the
Renaissance and had the old town hall and the old scales built,
among other things.
The city suffered immensely in the Thirty
Years War. From 1631 the imperial and Swedes alternated several
times in their control. The Swedish King Gustav II Adolf won an
important victory in September 1631 in the Battle of Breitenfeld (a
northern suburb of Leipzig), but fell a good year later in the
Battle of Lützen, which is also not far away. From 1642 to 1650
(beyond the Peace of Westphalia concluded in 1648), the Swedes under
General Torstensson occupied the city, as 267,000 thalers of war tax
were still outstanding. The Thirty Years' War had cost the city over
a million thalers and completely shattered its prosperity.
After peace was restored, Leipzig was fortified more strongly. At
that time, the linden avenues were also planted on the ramparts. In
1678 the Baroque style old trading exchange was built on the
Naschmarkt. The coin conference was held in 1690, which was followed
in 1691 by the introduction of the Leipzig foot (1 mark of fine
silver = 12 thalers) as a coin foot for the entire empire. Under
August II (the strong; r. 1694–1733), after the edict of Nantes was
repealed, the so-called French colony (mostly merchants) settled in
Leipzig.
One of the saddest consequences was the Seven Years'
War for Leipzig, that of Friedrich the Elder. Size with heavy
contributions (over 15 million thalers). In the period of the peace
that followed, trade and trade fairs took off like almost never
before. The university was greatly favored by Friedrich August I,
from 1784 onwards the fortifications were removed and the moat
turned into a park.
19th century
Even during the
Napoleonic Wars, Leipzig enjoyed strong masses, but from 1809 it was
occupied by changing troops. The world historical event of the Great
Battle of Nations from October 16 to 19, 1813, in which Russians,
Prussians, Austrians, Swedes and German Freikorps fought against the
troops of Napoleonic France and its remaining allies (including
Saxony), brought terrible days to Leipzig. The city was taken by
storm and received a Russian commander. The nervous fever that had
broken out in the numerous overcrowded hospitals, for which churches
and other public buildings were built, wiped out many thousands. The
division of Saxony in 1815, after which the border with Prussia ran
just a few kilometers north and west of Leipzig, was also a
disadvantage for the city.
In 1824, the last public execution
on the market square attracted thousands of onlookers. The story of
the murderer Johann Christian Woyzeck inspired Georg Büchner to one
of his most famous dramas.
The annexation of Saxony to the
German Customs Union in 1833 was of great importance for Leipzig.
The bookseller exchange was founded in 1836 and the Leipziger Bank
in 1838. With Friedrich List and Gustav Harkort, two visionary and
influential entrepreneurs were active in Leipzig who went down in
history as railway pioneers and are honored in Leipzig with street
names and monuments. In 1839 Leipzig became the starting point of a
railway line to Dresden, the first German long-distance railway. The
Leipzig-Magdeburg line followed in 1840. In 1844 the Bavarian train
station was inaugurated, where the Leipzig – Hof railway line
begins.
During the revolutionary year of 1848, numerous
political associations worked here in different directions, Robert
Blum in particular developed a great deal of agitation. There were
also bloody clashes between insurgents and representatives of the
authorities.
From 1856, on the initiative of the lawyer,
industrial pioneer and liberal politician Carl Heine, a canal was
laid from the Weißen Elster through Plagwitz to the Lindenau harbor.
Huge industrial areas arose on its banks, above all for textile
production, which are reminiscent of the buildings of the former
colored yarn factories (today Germany's largest industrial monument
and, among other things, used as lofts) and the cotton mill (today
an art center). With industrialization, Leipzig also became a center
of the labor movement. In 1863 the General German Workers'
Association, the oldest forerunner of the SPD, was founded here
under the leadership of Ferdinand Lassalle.
In 1866, Leipzig
was occupied by Prussian troops for several months because Saxony
was once again on the "wrong" side in the German-German war. After
the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire
in 1871, Leipzig experienced a great boom. The population had risen
moderately up to this time, but quintupled in the following 35
years. Before that, the urban area had only slightly extended beyond
the medieval core. Most of the city districts known today were still
villages, and around 1890 they were incorporated into the
municipality. During this time, multi-storey residential quarters in
the historicist style of the so-called Wilhelminian era, which are
so typical of Leipzig's cityscape, churches for the respective
districts, but also a whole series of representative villas of
wealthy merchants and industrialists emerged. In 1868 the Reich
Higher Commercial Court was relocated to Leipzig, in 1879 the city
received the seat of the newly founded Reich Court, which confirmed
and strengthened the city's role as a center of justice.
The
Leipzig horse tram went into operation in 1872, and in 1896 it was
electrified. By the beginning of the 20th century at the latest, the
Leipziger Brühl achieved its importance as the “world street of
furs”. Back then, people spoke of “Brühl” as the epitome of the
international fur trade, much as “Wall Street” stands for the
American financial sector today.
The increased importance and
self-confidence of the city became evident with the construction of
the New Town Hall on the site of the former Pleißenburg in 1905,
which is still the largest municipal administration building in
Germany today, the gigantic Völkerschlachtdenkmal, inaugurated on
the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Nations in 1913, and the
new main train station, which opened in 1915 replaced the Dresden,
Magdeburg and Thuringian train stations. In 1910, Leipzig was the
fourth largest city in the German Empire after Berlin, Hamburg and
Munich, and it was only after the First World War that Cologne
overtook it.
1918 to 1989
At the end of 1930 the
population of Leipzig peaked at 718,200. At the end of 1933 the
Reichstag fire trial took place in Leipzig, in which Marinus van der
Lubbe was convicted, but the prominent communists accused of being
his alleged accomplices were acquitted.
During the Second
World War, Leipzig was badly destroyed in Allied air raids (around
60% of the building fabric was affected), but not quite as badly as
Dresden, Magdeburg or various major cities in West Germany. The
destruction was also concentrated in the city center, while the
pre-war buildings were largely preserved in the outskirts. On April
18, 1945, Leipzig was liberated by US Army units, but in accordance
with the Yalta resolutions, it was handed over to the Soviet
occupying forces in July.
In the GDR, Leipzig was the second
largest city after East Berlin. As part of the uprising of June 17,
1953, there were also strikes and large protest marches in Leipzig.
Around 27,000 workers went on strike and an estimated 40,000 people
took part in demonstrations. The detention center and district court
were stormed to rescue political prisoners. 10 people died in the
violent crackdown by Soviet troops, most of them young people. A
bronze relief in the form of an imprint of a tank chain in
Salzgässchen today commemorates the event.
In the 1970s, the large housing estate Grünau was
laid out using the panel construction housing series 70 (WBS 70). It
had nearly 100,000 inhabitants at its peak and was practically a
city within a city. Further large prefabricated housing estates were
built in Paunsdorf, Schönefeld, Mockau, Möckern and on Straße des
18. Oktober.
As early as 1982, the weekly peace prayers began
in the Nikolaikirche, which were attended in particular by
opposition and regime critics. In the autumn of 1989 this was
followed by the first Monday demonstrations, making Leipzig one of
the starting points for the Peaceful Revolution and earning itself
the reputation of being a “city of heroes”. While the police still
used violence against the few participants on October 2, the first
mass protest took place on October 9, with an estimated 70,000
participants, and a call by six prominent Leipzigers for
non-violence was heeded. In the following weeks the protest marches
grew, on October 23, around 320,000 people attended. In addition to
political and civil liberties, environmental protection also played
an important role. The massive pollution of air and water by
industry and power plants was denounced.
Since the turning
point
In the 1990s, over 100,000 jobs were lost in the collapsing
industry. At the same time, billions were invested in the transport
and telecommunications infrastructure. A large part of the old
building stock was gradually renovated. The building contractor
Jürgen Schneider bought “cream pieces” in downtown Leipzig, such as
the Mädlerpassage and Barthels Hof, and had them extensively
renovated, cheating various banks out of billions (Schneider
affair). In 1996 the new exhibition center was opened. Nevertheless,
the number of inhabitants has decreased continuously since the fall
of the Wall, at the end of 1998 it had fallen to 437,000. Even a
massive incorporation of the surrounding suburbs could not raise
them again above their symbolic number of half a million.
The
so-called “New Leipzig School” has been making a lot of talk in the
arts since the 1990s, and Neo Rauch is the best-known representative
of it. However, many of the artists counted here reject the term and
there are no really defining common features in their works. The
only thing they have in common is that they studied in Leipzig or
work here. Many of them have been working on the site of the former
cotton mill in the west of Leipzig since the mid-2000s.
It
was not until 2002 that the population increased again moderately.
During this time, well-known industrial companies were able to
settle again, in 2002 the Porsche factory in Leipzig was opened, in
2005 the BMW factory followed. As part of the “Biotechnology
Offensive”, Bio City Leipzig was opened in 2003, which forms the
core of the Bio Campus made up of several scientific and medical
institutes. The word “boomtown” in the East was mentioned again.
After the unemployment rate had peaked at 21% in 2005, it fell
noticeably in the following years.
Since the beginning of the
2010s, Leipzig has often been viewed as a trendy metropolis and
hipster stronghold, which is reflected in the nickname “Hypezig”.
The population has been increasing significantly again since 2012
and, after the city celebrated its thousandth anniversary in 2015,
exceeded 600,000 in October 2019.
Trade fair city
Thanks
to its location at the intersection of important long-distance trade
routes, Leipzig has always been an important transshipment point for
goods. The foundation of the Leipziger Messe is dated around 1165.
"Annual markets" were already mentioned in the town's charter. Two
dates have established themselves for this year: the spring fair at
Jubilate (3rd Sunday after Easter) and the autumn fair at Michaelmas
(29 September). In 1458 the New Year's fair was added to the two
existing fairs. The city was granted the trade fair privilege in
1497 by Emperor Maximilian I.
In 1895 Leipzig was the first
trade fair city in the world to switch from a goods fair to a sample
fair, which means that the goods themselves were no longer traded in
Leipzig, but only samples were presented and orders were taken. In
order to take account of this new type of trade fair, large
exhibition courtyards and palaces were built in the first years of
the 20th century, which shaped the image of Leipzig city center in
the years that followed.
On the site of the International
Building Exhibition (IBA) 1913 in the south-east of the city, the
exhibition grounds for the Technical Fair with 17 large halls were
built between 1920 and 1928 - today known as the Old Fair.
During the GDR era, Leipzig remained a center of
international trade, especially east-west trade. As before,
exhibitors and buyers from the “non-socialist economic area” also
came to the spring and autumn fair, which gave the city a certain
international flair. Since there weren't enough hotel beds, trade
fair guests were also accommodated in private apartments, so that
the respective families could establish personal contact with them.
Under the auspices of a market economy, large general trade
fairs such as the Leipzig spring and autumn trade fair are no longer
common; instead, specialized trade fairs have been developed for
certain industries. The old exhibition grounds and the exhibition
halls in the city center no longer seemed suitable. Instead, the New
Fair was inaugurated on the northern outskirts in 1996. It has six
interconnected exhibition halls and a congress center. The most
popular public fairs held here are the Leipzig Book Fair,
Home-Garden-Leisure, Model-Hobby-Game and Partner Horse. The Games
Convention, which was also very popular, was discontinued in 2009 in
favor of Gamescom in Cologne. Auto Mobil International, once the
second largest German auto show after the IAA, was last held in
2014.
Book City
Leipzig (along with Frankfurt am Main) is
considered the German city of books. In 1545 the first booksellers,
Steiger and Boskopf, settled in Leipzig. In 1632, the number of
books presented at the Leipzig Book Fair exceeded that at the
Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time. From 1667 onwards, a large
part of the German book trade moved from Frankfurt, where too strict
censorship was exercised, to Leipzig, and from the beginning of the
18th century Leipzig became the main staging area of the German
book trade.
The development of Leipzig, which had already
begun in the previous century, into Germany's leading center for
publishing and printing, intensified in the 19th century. The music
publisher Hoffmeister & Kühnel has been located here since 1800,
which in 1814 became the Edition C. F. Peters, the market leader in
the sheet music market, which is still known today; From 1817 the
publishing house F. A. Brockhaus was located here, in 1828 the
Reclam publishing house followed, in 1874 the Bibliographical
Institute (known for Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon and the Duden)
moved from Gotha to Leipzig, in 1901 the Insel Verlag was founded
here. Among the numerous printing companies, Giesecke & Devrient
(founded in 1852) should be highlighted, which has developed into
one of the leading producers of banknotes and securities in Germany
(and even internationally).
The Exchange Association of
German Booksellers was based in Leipzig from 1825 to 1990. In 1912
he initiated the establishment of the Deutsche Bücherei, which set
itself the goal of collecting all books published in German.
Leipzig lost its undisputed position as the center of the German
book trade and publishing industry as a result of the division of
Germany. Many publishers that were based in Leipzig until then
relocated their headquarters to the western zones to avoid
nationalization. The German Library in Frankfurt am Main was founded
in 1946 as the West German counterpart to the German Library. It is
there that the German Book Trade Association was established.
After reunification, the German Library and German Library were
merged to form the German National Library (DNB), with both
locations being retained. The Leipzig Book Fair was also able to
assert itself as a large public fair (2017: 208,000 visitors)
alongside the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is more geared towards
trade visitors. Most publishers and the Börsenverein, however, kept
their seats in western Germany instead of returning to their old
home in Leipzig.
Music city
Leipzig has a great reputation
in the music world, especially in the classical one. The St. Thomas
Boys Choir, one of the most famous boys' choirs in Germany, has
existed since 1212. His name is closely linked to Johann Sebastian
Bach, who was cantor of St. Thomas Church and director of the choir
from 1723 to 1750. During this time he wrote many of his significant
spiritual works. The St. Thomas Choir is still particularly
committed to the performance of Bach's music.
The history of
the Leipzig Opera dates back to 1693, when the Opernhaus am Brühl
was founded. It was the third opera house in Europe that was founded
by citizens and was not attached to a ruling court. The situation is
similar with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, founded in 1743. It is even
the oldest non-courtly concert orchestra in the German-speaking
world that has outgrown the bourgeoisie, and with 185 professional
musicians the largest professional orchestra in the world. They not
only play symphony concerts in the Gewandhaus of the same name, but
also make music in the opera and with the St. Thomas' Choir.
Several prominent composers and musicians worked
in Leipzig during the Romantic era. Richard Wagner was born in
Leipzig and spent his youth and studies here. Clara Schumann was
also born in Leipzig, her husband Robert came to study in the city
in 1828, and they lived here together until 1844. Felix Mendelssohn
Bartholdy was the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister from 1835 until his death
in 1847, and during this time he founded the Conservatory of Music,
the forerunner of the today's music college.
In the field of
pop and rock music, Leipzig is known as the hometown of the bands
Die Prinzen, Karussell, Klaus Renft Combo, Die Art, The Firebirds
and Victorius. Due to the annual Wave-Gotik-Treffen, the city enjoys
a special reputation in the "black scene".
Sports city
Sport has a long tradition in Leipzig and arouses great enthusiasm
among large sections of the population. Leipzig was a center of the
German gymnastics movement. The German Football Association was
founded in Leipzig in 1900, and VfB Leipzig became the first German
champion in this sport in 1903.
From 1950, the sports science
research of the German University of Physical Culture (DHfK)
contributed to the international success of GDR athletes, but was
also involved in systematically practiced doping. With the central
stadium, inaugurated in 1956, the city had a “stadium of the hundred
thousand”, in which the GDR's major gymnastics and sports festival
took place eight times. From the 1960s onwards, Leipzig had two
large football clubs: BSG Chemie was three times GDR champion; 1. FC
Lokomotive Leipzig made it to the final of the European Cup Winners'
Cup in 1986/87. After the fall of the Wall, the Leipzig clubs began
to decline, especially in the area of football, which reached a
low point in the 2009/10 season when both 1. FC Lok and FC Sachsen
(formerly BSG Chemie) found themselves in the fifth division. In the
same year, however, the RB Leipzig, launched by the energy shower
producer Red Bull, appeared on the scene. This has been one of the
leading clubs in the 1st Bundesliga since 2016 and has also played
on a European level since 2017.
The central stadium was
replaced in 2000-04 by a much smaller pure football arena (almost
43,000 seats), whose naming rights are held by Red Bull. Today
Leipzig is an Olympic base of the DOSB for several sports (including
canoeing, athletics, judo). The central stadium was one of the
venues for the 2005 Confederations Cup and the 2006 World Cup, which
many Leipzigers also experienced as a “summer fairy tale”. World and
European championships in hockey, fencing, archery and pentathlon
took place in Leipzig. However, the application for the 2012 Olympic
Games, which continued Leipzig's tradition as a sports city and
excited many Leipzigers in 2004/05, failed.
Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) Opernhaus Opernhaus is an opera building constructed in 1959- 60. Nikolaikirche Nikolaikirche or Church of Saint Nicholas was constructed in the 16th century, although lower portions of the cathedral date back to the 12th century. Gewandhaus Mädlerpassage Madlerpassage is a passage between Naschmarkt and Grimmaische Strasse. It was constructed in 1912- 14 in Modernist style and line by cafés and shops. Beneath it is a Auerbachs Keller, 16th century vaults that became famous by Goethe in his Faust. A statue here commemorates famous book of the German author. Deutsches Buchund Schriftmuseum Deutsches Platz 1 Tel. (0341) 227 13 24 Open: 9am- 4pm Mon- Sat |
Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church)
Russische Kirche (Russian
Church) |
By plane
Leipzig Halle Airport (IATA: LEJ) is
located approx. 15 km northwest of Leipzig. Within Germany,
Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt (Main) and Munich. There are
international scheduled flights from Vienna and Istanbul, among
others. In the summer months, the holiday airlines offer flights to
the mostly southern European travel countries.
From the
Leipzig / Halle Airport train station, which is located directly
below the central terminal, the S 5 and S 5X S-Bahn lines run every
30 minutes to Leipzig Hbf (approx. 15 minutes travel time, MDV
tariff, single journey € 4.40) and on through the City tunnel
Leipzig in the direction of Altenburg and Zwickau. Some of the ICs
currently stop at the airport on the Leipzig – Halle – Magdeburg
route and continue towards Hanover.
A taxi ride to Leipzig
city center costs around € 45. There are several paid parking spaces
and a multi-storey car park at the airport. You can get to Leipzig
by car via the A14.
By train
Long-distance transport
Leipzig Central Station is located immediately north of the city
center. Two ICE lines cross here:
Hamburg – Berlin – Leipzig
– Erfurt (every hour; further every two hours from / to –Nuremberg –
Munich or –Frankfurt am Main – Stuttgart),
(Wiesbaden) –Frankfurt
am Main – Erfurt – Leipzig – Dresden (every two hours).
There is
also an hourly IC connection from Hanover via Magdeburg. Every
second train comes from Oldenburg and Bremen, the rest from Cologne
and the Ruhr area.
The demand on the long-distance trains
from Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main is very high on weekday
afternoons as well as on Friday and Sunday, so a reservation is
recommended.
Regional traffic
Leipzig main station is the
junction of local transport lines (RE, RB and S-Bahn), including
every half hour from / to Bitterfeld (30 min), Altenburg (45 min),
Zwickau (1:20 hours); Hourly Grimma (35 min), Riesa (45 min), Torgau
(45 min), Dessau (50 min), Naumburg (Saale) (50 min), Chemnitz (1
hour), Falkenberg (Elster) (1 hour) , Gera (1:05 hours), Döbeln
(1:10 hours), Dresden (1:30 hours), Magdeburg (1:35 hours), Saalfeld
(2 hours); every two hours Lutherstadt Wittenberg (1:10 hours),
Jena, Weimar (1:20 hours each), Cottbus (1:50 hours) and Hoyerswerda
(2:30 hours)
The Halle (Saale) junction is around 30 minutes
away and can be reached several times an hour with the S3 and S5
S-Bahn, whereby only the S5 goes through Leipzig / Halle Airport.
By bus
Most long-distance buses stop at the long-distance bus
terminal on the east side of the main train station, which is
located on the ground floor of a parking garage. If you leave the
station via the platform tunnel or the eastern exit of the cross
platform, you only have to cross the side street on the Saxony side.
The stop of some lines for Leipzig is on the outskirts at the
exhibition center (long-distance bus stop at the final stop of tram
16). There is also a long-distance bus stop at the airport.
Few European long-distance bus connections with Eurolines exist from
Zagreb, Sofia and Varna.
By street
Leipzig can be easily
reached by car: the two motorways A 14 (Magdeburg – Dresden) and A 9
(Berlin – Nuremberg) lead directly past Leipzig. The ring around
Leipzig is now closed by the A 38 (from Göttingen).
Coming on
the A 9 from the north (Berlin, Dessau), if you want to get to the
center, it is advisable to change to the A 14 at the Schkeuditzer
Kreuz and drive to the Leipzig-Mitte junction. From there, the B 2
has been developed as a four-lane expressway to the edge of the city
center.
If you come on the A 9 from the south (Munich,
Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Erfurt), navigation software usually indicates
that you should take the Leipzig-West junction. On the Merseburger
Straße (the western arterial road) there is often heavy traffic and
there are many traffic lights, which is why you can only make slow
progress and the journey to the center can drag on. This is often
not sufficiently taken into account by the software when calculating
the travel time. An alternative is to change to the A 38 at the
Rippachtal junction and drive from the south to the city center:
either from the Leipzig-Südwest junction or from the Leipzig-Süd
junction, from which the B 2 as a four-lane expressway almost to the
center leads. Ultimately, none of the three variants mentioned take
much advantage in terms of travel time and it depends on the
specific traffic situation and traffic lights.
On the A 14 from the west (Magdeburg, Hanover), if
the destination is in the center of Leipzig, drive to the
Leipzig-Mitte junction and then continue on the B 2.
If you
arrive on the A 14 from the east (Dresden), you can use the
Leipzig-Ost, Leipzig-Nordost or Leipzig-Mitte junctions. The travel
time to the center is similar in all three cases.
By bicycle
The Berlin – Leipzig cycle path (250km), the Leipzig-Elbe cycle
route (80km), the almost 60 km long Parthe-Mulde cycle route, the
105 km long Pleiße cycle path and the 250 km long Elster cycle path
lead to Leipzig
On foot
The Ecumenical Pilgrimage of
Central Germany leads through Leipzig along the course of the
medieval trade route Via regia
(Görlitz-Bautzen-Leipzig-Naumburg-Erfurt-Eisenach-Vacha, a total of
approx. 450 km, section from Bautzen 176 km, from Erfurt 143 km) is
also used as a branch of the Way of St. James in Germany. It crosses
here with the Way of St. James Via Imperii (Stettin – Berlin –
Wittenberg – Leipzig – Zwickau – Hof, a total of approx. 590 km,
section from Berlin 212 km, from Hof 192 km, from Zwickau 104 km).
Around the city
Public transportation
Leipzig has a dense
network of public transport with very short cycle times - even on
weekends and in the evening.
S-Bahn Central Germany In
December 2013, the Leipzig City Tunnel was opened between Leipzig
Hbf and the Leipzig Bayrischer Bahnhof station. Six S-Bahn lines run
through it, usually every 5 minutes. The tunnel has stops at Leipzig
Hauptbahnhof (deep), Markt, Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz and Bayerischer
Bahnhof. The Leipzig MDR stop is already south of the tunnel, but is
also served by all lines. Some of the trains then go to
Leipzig-Stötteritz (S1, S2, S3) and some beyond to Wurzen and
Oschatz (S3). The other lines (S4, S5 / S5X, S6) go to
Leipzig-Connewitz or beyond Markkleeberg to Markkleeberg-Gaschwitz
(S4), Borna and Geithain (S6), Altenburg and Zwickau (S5, S5X). To
the north, the lines divide after the main station stop in the
directions (Leipzig) Miltitzer Allee (S1), Halle via Schkeuditz
(S3), Leipzig Messe (S2, S5 / S5X, S6) and Halle via the airport (S5
/ S5X) or Delitzsch / Bitterfeld / Dessau / Lutherstadt Wittenberg
(S2) and Taucha, Eilenburg / Torgau / Falkenberg (Elster) /
Hoyerswerda (S4). You can jump on any train between the MDR and the
main train station, at the latest at the stops mentioned you should
make sure that you are on the right train.
In addition, the
tram is the method of choice in the city. Except for line 2, all of
the 13 tram lines stop at the main train station. From the inner
city ring, the lines lead in a star shape on the arterial roads in
all directions. From Monday to Saturday there is a ten-minute cycle
during the day, which is condensed into a five-minute cycle through
the superimposition of two lines on the most important routes. From
7 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays, every 15 minutes applies.
From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., the trams run every 30 minutes, with a hunt
group at the main station: daily at 11 p.m., 11:30 p.m., 0:00 and
0:30 a.m. Since the opening of the city tunnel, the departure times
of the S-Bahn between 23:00 and 1:00 have been aligned with the tram
hunt groups, but not all S-Bahn lines run at all hunt group times.
The buses connect the main axes with each other. Lines 60, 65,
70, 80 and 90 have the character of a Metrobus - they run at the
same intervals as the trams and provide tangent connections between
the districts outside the city center. Line 89, on which midibuses
(smaller than a normal city bus, but larger than a minibus) are
used, is the only bus line that runs every quarter of an hour
through the city center and connects the main station with the music
district southwest of the city center and Connewitz.
Night
buses - so-called nightliners - start at 1:11 a.m., 2:22 a.m. and
3:33 a.m. On the weekend nights from Friday to Saturday or Saturday
to Sunday, additional buses start at the main station at 1:45 a.m.
and 3:00 a.m.
A tram or bus stop in Leipzig is rarely more
than a 5-minute walk away, so it pays to leave your car behind and
explore the city by public transport. In most cases, the tram is
also significantly faster thanks to its own rail bed and priority
switching at traffic lights.
The tariffs of the MDV (Central
German Transport Association) apply in the entire city area and in
the surrounding districts. A single ticket costs € 2.70 within the
city (children aged 6 to 13 € 1.20), a day ticket € 7.60. A group
ticket for € 11.40 to € 22.80 is worthwhile for families and groups
of two to five people. Trips to the surrounding area cost a little
more, depending on the number of tariff zones required. As of
November 2020. Saxony / Saxony-Anhalt / Thuringia tickets are valid
on all means of transport in the MDV.
An extra card (€ 1.90)
must be purchased to take your bike with you. Bicycles in and around
Leipzig (MDV area) can be taken free of charge on S-Bahn and
regional trains.
Route
network map Leipzig - Tram / Bus / S-Bahn (PDF)
Night
bus network Leipzig - Nightliner (PDF)
By bicycle
Leipzig can be described as a bicycle city. The largely flat
landscape, the short distances between the most important facilities
and sights and the many green areas contribute to this. However, the
cycle path network is still very sketchy. Bike shops and workshops
can be found all over the city. The only cooperatively organized
bicycle shop that also has a self-help workshop is Veloismus eG in
the east of Leipzig (Eisenbahnstraße area).
There is a Nextbike
rental system in the city. After you have registered via the
website, app, hotline or on a station computer, you can go to
more than a dozen stations in the city (including main station,
Augustusplatz, Nikolaikirchhof, Marktplatz, Goerdelerring,
Westplatz) for € 1 per half hour or Use a bike for € 9 per day
and return it to another station.
Other bike rentals:
Tandem rental Matthias Stefan (Plaußiger Str. In the east of
Leipzig). Tel .: + 49-163 78 33 0 74, email:
tandem-leipzig@web.de.
Tandems of various types.
1 two-wheeler Eckhardt,
Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 4 (at the main train station, west side).
Tel .: + 49-341-9617274. City bikes with 3-speed gear shift, hub
dynamo Open: Mon-Fri 8 am–8pm, Sat 9 am–6pm. Price: 8 € for 24
hours
2 Grupetto, Waldstraße 13 (near Waldplatz / Arena
Leipzig). Tel .: + 49-341-9104750, email:
waldstrasse@grupetto.de.
Open: Mon-Fri 10 am–7pm, Sat 10 am–4pm. Price: City bikes € 10
for 24 hours.
3 Little John Bikes, Martin-Luther-Ring 3-5
(opposite the New Town Hall). Tel .: + 49-341-4625919, email:
leipzig-zentrum@littlejohnbikes.de. Open: Mon-Fri 10
a.m.-7 p.m., Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (winter).
Veloismus eG,
Neustädter Str. 24, Tel .: + 49-341-26512260. Opening times:
weekdays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays noon to 5 p.m.
In
the street
Parking space is chronically scarce in the city
center and the districts near the center. Larger shopping
centers such as Höfe am Brühl, Petersbogen and Promenaden /
Hauptbahnhof have multi-storey car parks or underground garages,
and another large underground car park is located under
Augustusplatz. It is worth considering avoiding the stress of
driving into the city center, which is actually not made for
cars, and leaving the car in one of the Park & Ride areas or
at the accommodation.