Leipzig 2018

Leipzig - A sunny weekend in Eastern Germany

  On 20th April, I went to Leipzig for a weekend trip. I decided to travel to Leipzig for joining the 10 km run and for visiting the city and its great sightseeing places during a sunny spring weekend. Since my hostel was in the city centre, I could start the sightseeing tour at the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche), which is associated with well-known composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, who was the music director of the church from 1723 until his death in 1750. For this reason, there is also a statue of Bach in front of the church. The church itself is 76 m long and has a 68 m high church tower. Another famous church in Leipzig, where Bach was the music director too, is the St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche). The construction started in 1165 in a Romanesque style, but it also got Gothic and Baroque elements in the 16th and 18th century. In 2015, the church celebrated its 850th anniversary. Close to the churches are the Old Town Hall, which was reconstructed in 1556 and used for royal festivals in the past, and the Old Stock Exchange, which was built in the 17th century in early Baroque style.

  The next destination was the Augustusplatz on the eastern edge of the city centre. With approximately  40,000 m², the Augustusplatz is one of the biggest city squares in Germany and includes many buildings like the Opera House, which was opened in 1960, the Gewandhaus, a concert hall, opened in 1981, the Paulinum, which belongs to the University of Leipzig and the Mende Fountain, which was erected in 1886 by the architect Adolf Gnauth and the sculptor Jacob Ungerer.

  After a little walk in a park, I went to the New Town Hall of Leipzig, the seat of the Leipzig city administration since 1905, which is close to the famous Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, also called "Karli" with its nice coffee shops, bars and the amazing nightlife. It was perfect for taking a short coffee break for enjoying the atmosphere there, before I went to the Federal Administrative Court, which was constructed between 1888 and 1895 in a style of Italian Renaissance architecture and French Baroque. Since 2002, the building has been the seat of the of the Federal Court, the highest administrative court in Germany. Then, I was quite surprised to see the Bavarian Railway Station, which was built between 1841 and 1844 and was the oldest railway terminus in the world until it was closed in 2011. Today, the station houses a restaurant and a brewery.

   After walking a lot around the city, I took a little break in the Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig. It's the oldest Botanical Garden in Germany and there are around 7,000 different kind of plant species on an area of 3.5 hectare, which contains geographic arrangements of plants for example from the steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, forests of the northern hemisphere, but it also contains regional flora and an alpine garden. It was amazing to see so many beautiful flowers!

   I continued my walking tour to the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, which was erected by the architect Bruno Schmitz and inaugurated on 18th October 1913 as a reminder of the Battle of Nations. With a height of 91 m, its one of the highest European monuments and it contains more than 500 steps to the viewing platform at the top. In front of the monument, there is an artificial lake, called "Lake of Tears", which symbolize the tears of the nations, mourning the dead of the battle.  

   Another highlight was the visit of the Gohlis Palace, built in 1756 for the city architect Johann Caspar Richter, a beautiful summer palace in a Baroque style. Today, the palace is a venue for concerts, theatre presentations and exhibitions.