Top Sights and Shopping Malls in Leipzig, Saxony
Restored City of Leipzig Marks Anniversary of Peaceful Revolution
Oct 23, 2009
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall Leipzig is a bustling city with a contemporary feel. Leipzig's old town is full of beautifully restored Renaissance and Baroque buildings, street markets, outdoor cafes, bars and nightclubs. The Leipzig Trade Fair ("Leipziger Messe" in German) has been held since the Middle Ages and the old trade-fair buildings and interconnecting passages in the city center are a special attraction today.
Leipzig History
Leipzig was first mentioned in 1015. Founded by Slavic settlers, who revered the lime tree as sacred, it was called "Lipzk" meaning "place at the limes". Located at the intersection of two long-distance trade routes, Leipzig developed into one of the major East-West trading centers. The Jewish quarter of the city, the Brühl, was the center of the world's fur trade. The printing industry, the famous Leipzig Book Fair and the University were founded in the 15th century.
Shopping Leipzig's Promenaden Hauptbahnhof and Passage Arcades
Leipzig's magnificently restored railroad station, Promenaden Hauptbahnhof, is one of Germany's most attractive shopping malls. It is only a short walk from the city center. Leipzig's narrow streets filled with outlets, department stores, markets and stylish arcades are built on the grid of the medieval merchants yards and a pleasure to explore by foot. Hainstrasse, Peterstrasse and Nikolaistrasse are lined with impressive shops. Speck's Hof, Leipzig's oldest passage arcade, has elegant specialty shops and displays contemporary art in its courtyards.
Top Tourist Sights in Leipzig
- Leipzig's Old City Hall (1556) is one of the most beautiful Renaissance buildings in Germany. It is the home of the City Museum. Also on the market with a sun dial in its gable is the Old Weighing House.
- St. Thomas Church — Thomaskirche — is the home of the St. Thomas Boys Choir and the final resting place of the famous St. Thomas cantor Johann Sebastian Bach. The adjacent Bach Museum holds some of his original manuscripts.
- St. Nikolai Church — Nikolaikirche — became known in 1989 for its "Prayers for Peace" which inspired mass demonstrations in Leipzig, led to the peaceful revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
- Mädler Passage is Leipzig's most famous arcade and home of the restaurant "Auerbachs Keller". Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent time drinking here, and a key scene of his drama "Faust" is set in its wine cellar.
- The Monument of the Battle of Leipzig commemorates the Battle of the Nations (1813), which ended Napoleon's conquest and led to his first exile in Elba. It also mourns the dead from all nations involved.
The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 and the Museum of the East German Secret Police (STASI Museum)
The chilling Stasi Museum in the former headquarters of the East German Secret Police is in a building called Runde Ecke (Round Corner). Exhibits in the Museum in der Runden Ecke document the paranoid methods of the Stasi in its original environment. Steaming machines used to open tens of thousands of letters to East Germans and "smell jars" containing pieces of cloth with odors of suspects speak of the excesses of a paranoid police state. The Monday Peace demonstrations in 1989 always ended at this building with citizens placing candles on its doorsteps.
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