Leipzig is the largest city in the Federal State (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. The name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk (= "settlement where the linden trees stand"). It is situated at the confluence of the Rivers Pleiße, White Elster and Parthe. Leipzig has a population of 502,000.

First documented in 1015, and endowed with city and market privileges in 1165, the city of 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, became an event of international importance; especially as a point of contact to the East-European economic bloc (Comecon) of which East Germany was a member.

The foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409 initiated the city's development into a center of German law and the publishing industry, and towards being a location of the Reichsgericht (Supreme Court), and the German National Library (founded in 1912). Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, at the St. Thomas Lutheran church. Richard Wagner, the composer, was born in Leipzig in 1813. Later in the same year, the Leipzig region was the arena of the Battle of the Nations. In 1913 a monument, the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, celebrating the hundred year anniversary of this event was finished.

The importance of the Trade Fair and the University to the creation of a vibrant urban life and city politics from the Reformation through the Nineteenth Century cannot be underestimated. Leipzig became a center of the German and Saxon liberal movements.

Having been a terminal of the first German long distance railroad (1838, to Dresden, the capital of Saxony), Leipzig became a hub of Central-European railroad traffic, with a renowned station building, now the largest passenger train station in Europe. Leipzig expanded rapidly towards one million inhabitants. Huge Gründerzeit areas were built, which survived, for the greater part, the War and after war demolitions. Nowadays these areas are unique in modern Germany. The decline of the number of inhabitants however remain a threat to these precious rich decorated remains of once Imperial Germany.

On November 9, 1938, on a night now known as Kristallnacht, Nazis in Leipzig destroyed Jewish synagogues and establishments in Leipzig as they did all over Germany. An U.S. official in Leipzig described what he saw of the atrocities. "Having demolished dwellings and hurled most of the moveable effects to the streets," he wrote, "the insatiably sadistic perpetrators threw many of the trembling inmates into a small stream that flows through the zoological park, commanding horrified spectators to spit at them, defile them with mud and jeer at their plight."

The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II.

American troops of the 69th Infantry Division captured the city on April 20, 1945, Adolf Hitler's 56th and final birthday. The U.S. later ceded the city to the Red Army, and it was one of the major cities of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

In 1989, after prayers for peace at the Nikolai 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. The city became known as the Stadt der Helden (City of Heroes) for its leading role in the democratic East German revolution that eventually led to German reunification.[1]

Sights

Among Leipzig's noteworthy institutions are also the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the opera house, Oper Leipzig, and the Leipzig Zoo, which houses the world's largest facilities for primates. Additionally, Leipzig has an international trade fair ground in the north of the city with the world largest levitated Glass Hall. (Leipzig Trade Fair)

Events

Literature expostition & festival (March)
The Johann Sebastian Bach Festival (May)
International Dark, Wave, Gothic Festival (Whitsun)
Emancipatoric Punk & Electro Festival (August)
International Documentary and Animated Film Festival (October)
French Film Festival (October)
Leipzig Jazz Festival (November)
Contemporary European Theater Festival (November)
Games Convention, computer- and videogames fair for customers

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