Architecture of Leipzig

Paul Wiedemann's oriel window on the Fürstenhaus (Prince's House), made of Rochlitz porphyry tuff, was influenced by the Torgau Hartenfels Castle (Johann-Friedrich-Bau) from 1533 to 1536.

[17] The box oriel window at Hainstrasse 8 was described as follows: “The stucco work, floral tendrils and a lion's head holding flower garlands still bear witness to the extraordinary quality of the craftsmanship of the time.”[18] Important Baroque buildings in Leipzig are or were:[19] More pictures can be found here.

Gurlitt[37] describes that in the 1830s, Rococo also appeared in Leipzig in the forms that Jean de Bodt, Zacharias Longuelune and Johann Christoph Knöffel used in the neighboring Saxon Dresden.

Representatives of historicism in Leipzig were August Friedrich Viehweger, Martin Gropius, Heino Schmieden, Hugo Licht, Paul Richter, Arwed Roßbach, Hans Enger, Karl Weichardt and Otto Simonson.

Joseph Kaffsack created six 4 metres (13 ft) tall attic statues on the main post office, which were commissioned by the Reichspost and Telegraph Administration and were allegories of postal services, telegraphy, art, science, trade and industry.

Maegerlein describes Leipzig as an “extraordinarily complex city”,[72] including Leipzig as a city of the fur trade and “industry”:[72] "... and the Jews in Brühl, the most important fur street in the world at the time, in their black caftans, trading and gesticulating animatedly in front of their shops, with their side-locks that seemed so alien to us ... and the first escalator of our lives in August Polich's progressive department store next to the Deutsche Bank at the exit from Petersstrasse.”The Neue Handelsbörse (New trading exchange building)[73] at Tröndlinring 2 was built from 1884 to 1887 according to designs by the architects Hans Enger and Karl Weichardt in the style of historicism based on models of the Italian Renaissance: “The architecture outside and inside is carried out in the Italian High Renaissance”.

Numerous residential buildings were also built in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style: the architects Hermann Ende and Wilhelm Böckmann created a two-story villa with a porch in the shape of an ancient triumphal arch.

[75] In 1890–1891, the architectural firm Pfeifer & Händel created a large villa at Feldstrasse 3 (today Lützowstrasse 9) in Leipzig-Gohlis for the engineer and founder Adolf Bleichert, owner of the largest cable car factory.

[97] Hannelore Künzl describes how Otto Simonson mixed elements from different periods when building the Leipzig Synagogue, but all of them came from the Spanish-Islamic or North African cultures.

"[citation needed] In terms of urban development,[109] the construction of the new main train station directly adjacent at the old town center was important in 1915, which strengthened Leipzig's position as an international transport hub.

[131] The house at Menckestrasse 19 in Gohlis,[132] built in 1903/1904 based on designs by Alfons Berger, shows a variety of different window formats and is “one of the most interesting examples of Art Nouveau in Leipzig”.

The model for the Kroch high-rise was the Torre dell'Orologio clock tower in Venice, built between 1496 and 1499, with St. Mark's lions: “The building quotes were applauded in Leipzig, certainly also because of the centuries-old connections to the Italian trading cities and their culture...

The following inscriptions can be read in German language above the main entrance: Körper und Stimme leiht die Schrift dem stummen Gedanken, durch der Jahrhunderte Strom trägt ihn das redende Blatt.

and Freie Statt für freies Wort, freier Forschung sicherer Port, reiner Wahrheit Schutz und Hort.The building rejects conventional historicism in favor of reform architecture: “This architecture does not follow a specific stylistic model; rather, the different details are handled completely freely in the sense of adaptations and put together to form a facade design that sets itself apart from models of all kinds.”[145] The Messehaus Petershof (trade fair building Petershof) at Petersstrasse 20 is an example of “classic modernism”[146] and was built for the publisher Josef Mathias Petersmann[147] based on designs by Alfred Liebig: “ Liebig reduced the structure of the main front with boldly protruding window frames traditional facade architecture in the simplest forms, but avoided the hallmarks of modernity – ribbon windows and insubstantial external walls.

Instead, the barrenness is refined with high-quality natural stone (Cannstatter Travertine).”[148] The Leipzig artist Johannes Göldel (1891–after 1946) created the seven larger-than-life sculptures that are located on consoles above the ground floor area.

In 1932, Emil Hipp won the city of Leipzig 's competition for a Richard Wagner monument in the style of neoclassicism, which "enjoyed the special support of the Nazi leadership".

According to Markus Cottin, a “monument complex the size of the Dresden Zwinger”[160] was to be built on the east bank of the newly created Elster flood basin, in the eastern part of the Palmengarten Park.

In keeping with its original purpose as a textile department store, the house was symbolically placed under the protection of the trade god Mercury, to whom a sculpture above the main entrance was once dedicated.

The noble effect of the shell limestone for the facade cladding as well as the clever adaptation to the irregular site give the building a special aesthetic appeal even without elaborate decorative shapes [...].

After the city was taken by American soldiers from the 69th Infantry and 9th Armored Divisions, the historic building became the subject of particular interest: “Quickly drive to the town hall before they clean it up […] everything in there looks like Madame Tussauds Wax museum!”.

From 1950 to 1951, the building complex on Ranstädter Steinweg was completed according to designs by the architects Heinz Auspurg[181] (urban development) and Walter Lucas[182] (project) in socialist neoclassicism (“tradition-bound forms”[194]).

These included oriel windows extending over several floors, as they had shaped the image of the bourgeois house in the Baroque period, and arcades, which were typical in the Renaissance and Classicism.

[200] In the middle section is the two-story ring café flanked like a tower with “facades based on the Leipzig Baroque tradition.” It is a “plastered building with travertine structure.” The sculptural decoration comes from Rudolf Oelzner and Alfred Thiele.

[216] In 1973, the bronze relief Leninism, Marxism of Our Time,[217] created by the artists Frank Ruddigkeit, Klaus Schwabe and Rolf Kuhrt in the style of socialist realism, was installed.

In the foyer of the second floor, which was built to surround the hall, is the gallery of the New Gewandhaus with paintings by Gudrun Brüne, Dietrich Burger, Ulrich Hachulla, Heidrun Hegewald, Susanne Kandt-Horn, Harald Metzkes, Ronald Paris, Nuria Quevedo, Arno Rink, Willi Sitte, Volker Stelzmann, Walter Womacka, Heinz Zander and Frank Ruddigkeit.

[228] A work in béton brut was the Church of St. Trinitatis (Propsteikirche) at Emil-Fuchs-Strasse 5–7, which was built from 1978 to 1982 based on designs by a collective from the Bauakademie der DDR (GDR Building Academy) under the direction of Udo Schultz.

In 1969, Reiner Grube built a bird-free flight hall in Leipzig Zoo, now a listed building, consisting of a gable wall made of concrete blocks with thermal glazing.

[239] In the entrance hall there is a natural stone relief by Hanna Studnitzka and Elfried Ducke on the topic “Leipzig trade fair events yesterday and today”.

Therefore, the Japanese construction group Kajima Corporation Tokyo built the Internationales Handelszentrum (IHZ) in Berlin and, as a follow-up order, the five-star luxury Hotel Merkur in Leipzig.

[254] In the immediate vicinity are the historic buildings of the former Sächsische Wollgarnfabrik (Saxon wool yarn factory or Buntgarnwerke), built between 1887 and 1895 based on designs by the architects Ottomar Jummel and Handel & Franke.