History of Leipzig
[2] Over the last two centuries, Leipzig has experienced strong growth and was for a time the fourth largest German city after Berlin, Hamburg and Breslau, even ahead of Munich.
Bronze Age urns containing cremated remains have been found on the site of the Südfriedhof (South Cemetery) and the former Dominican monastery.
Elbe Germanic finds from the time of the Roman Empire and the Migration Period in and around Leipzig are usually attributed to the Suebi as branch of the Hermunduri.
At the beginning of the 10th century, several Frankish strongholds were built on the site of former Sorbian villages, for example Leipzig, where the Sorbs participated in the construction, so that it was probably already finished in 929.
Leipzig was first mentioned in 1015, when Thietmar of Merseburg cites it as the place of death of Eido I, Bishop of Meissen, calling it ″Urbs Libzi″ (Chronicle VII, 25).
The Easter and Michaelis[9] markets were confirmed[10] from 1190; granted in 1268, the privilege of the protective escort laid the foundations for long-distance trade.
This did not seriously prevent the cities of Frankfurt an der Oder, Naumburg, Annaberg and Erfurt from establishing additional or new markets.
[20] On 17 September 1631, during the Thirty Years' War, Leipzig experienced one of the greatest defeats of the Imperials led by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, on the battlefield of Breitenfeld.
Today in Leipzig, on the former manorial estate of Breitenfeld, a monument commemorates the memory of the great Swedish strategist Gustavus Adolphus.
A year later, the 16 November 1632, Gustavus Adolphus was to fall during the Battle of Lützen, about 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of the present city limits of Leipzig.
[25] In 1729, Bach took over the direction of the Collegium Musicum, which performed many of his secular cantatas and instrumental compositions in the Zimmermann Coffee House until 1741.
The Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky intervened and achieved a reduction in the contribution to 800,000 thalers, which he advanced to the intimidated city council.
[28] While over half of the Kingdom of Saxony was formally ceded to Prussia in 1815, Leipzig remained part of King Frederick Augustus I.
In August 1835, Felix Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus and held this position until his death in November 1847; with his orchestra he reformed concert life in Europe.
Leipzig developed in its role as a railway hub in central Germany and in 1915 became the largest terminus station in Europe, surpassing Milan in terms of traffic.
During the Vormärz, on the occasion of Prince Johann's visit of August 1845, incidents occurred in Lepzig, resulting in 8 deaths; demonstrations against the Saxon government followed.
[37] In the course of the German revolution of 1918–1919, a workers' and soldiers' council was established in Leipzig under the exclusive leadership of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, which existed until the troops of the Freikorps leader Maercker moved in in April 1919.
Leipzig was the site of one of the heaviest bombing of the Second World War; it lasted about an hour (the alert was given at around 3:40 a.m.) and took place on 4 December 1943.
The female and male prisoners had to work under the most difficult conditions for munitions producers such as HASAG and the aircraft manufacturer Erla.
The following day, 32 police prisoners, German, French, Austrian and Czechoslovak, died in a Wehrmacht barracks, as part of the mass murders perpetrated by the Nazis.
Finally, on 2 July 1945, following the London Protocol of 1944 on the zones of occupation and the decisions of the Yalta Conference, the Soviet army took control of the city.
The Soviet military administration formed a city council whose composition, throughout the time of the GDR, was to be dictated by the communist regime.
The social reforms that began in the Soviet Union (Glasnost and Perestroika) in the mid-1980s led to an increasing number of political initiatives by these groups, which were primarily directed against grievances in society (lack of freedom of speech, assembly and press, electoral fraud in local elections, environmental pollution).
In this context, the Monday peace prayers that had been held in Leipzig's St. Nicholas Church since September 1982 acquired political relevance when the number of visitors began to rise at the end of 1988 due to the increased social debate in the GDR.
In the following period, despite the ban on opposition groups, protest actions initiated continued to increase, which repeatedly led to numerous arrests of participants by the state security authorities.
[45] The wave of protests reached its peak in the autumn of 1989 during the 40th anniversary of the GDR, when Leipzig was finally the scene of mass demonstrations with several hundred thousand participants.
The Leipzig rallies, which took place without violent state intervention, not least on the initiative of regional representatives of culture, the church and the Socialist Unity Party, ultimately embodied the image of peaceful protest by citizens against the prevailing socio-political conditions in their country, which was being carried out simultaneously throughout the GDR.
Since 2001, Leipzig has seen increasing migration gains, which are also reflected in a high level of redevelopment activity in the Wilhelminian-era quarters.
Following an international architectural competition, the design by the Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat was realised and completed under the name Paulinum for the university's 608th anniversary in 2017.
On 23 September 2008, Leipzig was awarded the title “Ort der Vielfalt” (place of diversity) by the Cabinet of Germany.
