Leipzig: A lighthouse in eastern Germany

Almost a thousand years old, sitting at the juncture of three rivers — the Pleiße, White Elster and Parthe — Leipzig is rich in history and natural beauty; not to mention jobs. Home to universities and research centers, plenty of culture and nightlife, the world’s oldest trade fair and a growing local economy — Leipzig stands out in eastern Germany.

Leipzig by night pixelio user luutze78

City profile

Leipzig is eastern Germany’s most populated city, with 510,000 inhabitants. Situated in the northwest of Saxony, just a short train or car ride from other interesting cities including Dresden and Berlin, Leipzig impresses with its beautifully renovated historical city center, complete with picturesque alleys and larger pedestrian areas lined with fashionable shops and cafés. The city also boasts a long tradition of business and learning: The Leipzig Trade Fair, which began in the Middle Ages, is the oldest trade fair in the world, and the University of Leipzig, founded in 1409, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Leipzig is also home to three Max-Planck Institutes (for anthropology, neuroscience and mathematics) as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology and the Fraunhofer Center for Central and Eastern Europe.

After Germany’s reunification, Leipzig became an automobile and industrial hub, with giants like BMW, Porsche and Siemens opening facilities there. Moreover, DHL, Deutsche Post’s logistics daughter, is in the process of transferring the bulk of its European air operations to nearby Leipzig/Halle Airport.

Overview of universities

University of Leipzig
(Ritterstraße 26, 04109 Leipzig)
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/english/index.html

Whether it’s the Olympics, its questionable human rights record or its swift economic ascent — China is the country the world is talking about. What drives China’s tremendous economic growth? Who profits, who loses? What does China’s society look like? At the University of Leipzig, students are encouraged to find answers to these questions with the help of top-notch Asia experts: On April 9, 2008, the University of Leipzig opened the first Confucius Institute in eastern Germany, a cooperation program with a Beijing university that enables German students to learn more about the Chinese language and culture.

The Confucius Institute is only one of several recent developments at the school. In 2009, when the university will celebrate its 600th anniversary, officials want to be finished reconstructing the historic inner-city campus for roughly €140 million, a project that was launched in the summer of 2005.

Some 29,000 students currently attend the 14 departments at the University of Leipzig; among its alumni are such famous names as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The school is well-known for its expertise in natural science: Nobel Prize winners in the fields of physics and chemistry have taught here, and the psychology department is one of the most renowned in Germany. The media departments have made quite a name for themselves, as well, with prominent public relations and journalism programs. The university offers bachelors, masters, doctoral and post-doctoral programs.

Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig (HGB)
(Wächterstr. 11, 04107 Leipzig)
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/index.php?a=aktuell&js=2

With roots dating back to 1764, this Leipzig arts school is one of the most renowned in Germany. In the late 1990s, one of its alumni, Neo Rauch, became the poster boy of the New Leipzig School. The work of artists from the New Leipzig School varies in content, style and quality, but the painters “share a technical skill, a devotion to figurative art and a predilection for dry-eyed, melancholy subject matter,” the New York Times wrote about the phenomenon. Rauch's works are displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and were on show in solo exhibitions all over the world, including one at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art that made Rauch one of the world’s most famous modern painters. Rauch has been teaching courses at the HGB since 2005 and international art dealers flock to Leipzig to find the next hot artist to emerge from the school.

University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy”
(Grassistraße 8, 04107 Leipzig)
http://www.hmt-leipzig.de/index.php?english

Founded in 1843, the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” was the first music school in Germany. Today, it has some 900 students, with foreign students from 45 countries — one of the highest rates of any institute of higher education in Saxony. Students can enroll in artistic and teacher training in all orchestral instruments; classes teach piano chamber music, orchestral conducting, composition, jazz, pop, church music and more. In addition, the school’s drama department offers acting and dramaturgy courses. With roughly 470 shows a year, the university offers its students possibilities to test their musical and dramatic development in front of a real audience. The university’s orchestra is famous for its guest conductors, which have included Kurt Masur, Herbert Blomstedt and Fabio Luisi. The programs lead to bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees.

Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTKW)
(Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 132, 04277 Leipzig)
http://www.htwk-leipzig.de/english/indexe.htm

The roughly 6,000 students at the HTKW can take courses in subjects ranging from engineering to the cultural sciences. This range mirrors Leipzig's economic traditions and strengths in commerce, book publishing and printing and, more recently, in the media and services industries. The HTWK has built up an especially strong reputation in the areas of IT/communications, media technologies and construction — which covers quite a broad field, including civil engineering, architecture and industrial engineering.

What Leipzig is like

Sylwia Konopko from Bialystok, a city of roughly 300,000 in eastern Poland, knew Leipzig even before she came here to study public relations here in 2003. Several years earlier, as a high school student, she participated in an exchange program with a German Gymnasium (high school) in nearby Grimma and her experiences over that year prompted her to come back for her university studies — a move she doesn’t regret.

“Leipzig is the perfect university town,” the 25-year-old says. “The campus is in the middle of Leipzig; you can master all distances with your bike. There are a lot of parks and two beautiful lakes just outside the city.” Not to mention that at night, the narrow downtown alleys bustle with students flocking to the city’s many bars and clubs.

Sylwia says she likes Leipzig’s mix of traditional and modern architecture and the city’s proximity to Poland. Besides having a lot of German friends (including people she met during her stay in Grimma), she is in contact with people from her home country and all of Eastern Europe.

If she isn’t busy writing her master’s thesis (which covers ethics in Polish public relations and is due to be finished soon), during the summer months Sylwia enjoys the many green spots Leipzig has to offer, including her favorite, the 125-hectare Clara Zetkin Park.

Did you know?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studied law in Leipzig between 1765 and 1768. A scene from his closet drama Faust made the Auerbach's Keller restaurant world-famous.

The peaceful revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall started in Leipzig in September 1989, when citizens of the former GDR marched for freedom and democracy. The so-called ‘Monday Demonstrations’ were repeated all over the GDR and culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

While you’re there

You shouldn’t miss checking out Leipzig’s two city halls: The Old City Hall, built in 1556, is one of the last Renaissance buildings constructed in Germany and now houses a museum displaying the city’s history. The New City Hall, at least equally impressive, was completed in 1905 and still serves as the city’s administrative center.

Also be sure to visit Leipzig Zoo, the second-oldest zoo in the world, and one of the most innovative: In 1999, officials launched an ambitious remodeling project that is intended to transform the Leipzig Zoo into several continental regions so animals can be seen in their natural habitat. Pongoland, for example, has 30,000 square meters of tropical habitat housing orangutans, gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees; visitors can observe the great apes from foot bridges and “adventure paths.” Building is proceeding one area at a time — Pongoland, completed in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute, was completed in 2001 — and hopefully the entire project will be completed by 2014.

What’s happening?

Leipzig is famous for its bustling nightlife. The city has numerous and varied restaurants, bars and clubs, including the largest student bar in Germany — the Moritzbastei. Rebuilt from the ruins of last part of Leipzig’s fortification by over 30,000 student volunteers in the late 1970s (one of those helping hands was German Chancellor Angela Merkel), the Moritzbastei today is the city’s main venue for Indie pop/rock concerts and dance parties.

At your service

The International Center of the University of Leipzig helps foreign students:
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/aaa/eng/index.html

Cheap student housing in Leipzig (German language site):
http://leipzig.studenten-wohnung.de/

Leipzig Tourist Service — all you need to know about the city:
http://www.leipzig.de/int/en/

The University Ranking of the DAAD: http://www.daad.de/deutschland/hochschulen/hochschulranking/06543.en.html