Leipzig

Major commercial and industrial city in west Saxony, Germany, on the Weisse Elster (a tributary of the River Elbe), 145 km/90 mi southwest of Berlin; population (2003 est) 485,100. Industries include printing, publishing, and the production of textiles, furs, leather goods, paper, machine tools, and musical instruments. It hosts numerous trade shows, including important industrial and book fairs. The city is also a centre for the arts, culture, and education, and has a university founded in 1409.

The area was heavily polluted with sulphur dioxide from nearby coal-processing plants. Lignite (brown coal) mining and the manufacture of chemicals have been drastically cut back since the re-unification of East and West Germany.

History Originally a Slavic settlement called Lipsk, Leipzig was chartered at the end of the 12th century and rapidly rose to commercial prominence at the intersection of ancient trade routes, the most important of which was the Hellweg running west to Essen and Cologne. It was granted the privilege to hold fairs in 1165, and these have been held ever since. The city was the scene of fighting in the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), the Seven Years' War (1756–63), and during the Napoleonic Wars in the period 1812–13. The Battle of the Nations, which took place outside Leipzig in 1813, saw the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The old city and its historic buildings were badly damaged in World War II, particularly between 1943 and 1945. Redevelopment and restoration has taken place during the 1990s to improve the city's landscape.

A printing industry, which later became important, was started in Leipzig c.1480. The city was one of the leading cultural centres of Europe in the age of the philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibnitz (born here 1646) and of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. It became an important literary centre during the 18th century, while its musical reputation reached its peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the Leipzig Conservatory, founded by Mendelssohn in 1842–43, became one of the world's best-known musical academies.

Features Broad promenades mark the line of the old walls, separating old Leipzig from the more modern areas, which in turn are bounded by industrial suburbs. The old town has narrow streets with 16th- and 17th-century houses, including the Rathaus (town hall), built in 1558; the old stock exchange, built in 1682; the late 15th-century Church of St Thomas, which has housed the tomb of Bach since 1950; and Auerbach's Hof, constructed around 1530. The Gewandhaus, established in 1781 and rebuilt in 1884, is home to the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.

Famous people The writers Johann von Wolfgang Goethe and Johann Schiller studied at the university, as did the Leipzig-born composer Richard Wagner. Johann Sebastian Bach was organist at the church of St Thomas (built 1723–50). The composers Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn lived in Leipzig. In 1843 Mendelssohn founded the Conservatory, which attracted students from abroad, including Edvard Grieg and Frederick Delius. The mathematician Gottfried Leibnitz was born here.