Leipzig

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(anc. Lipsk), city, E central Germany, in Saxony, located near the confluence of the Pleisse, Parthe, and Elster rivers. An important commercial, industrial, and transportation center, Leipzig is noted for the international trade fairs that have been held here since the Middle Ages. Industries in the city produce printing equipment, precision instruments, textiles, beer, and musical instruments.

The new Rathaus (town hall) is on the site of the 13th-century Pleissenburg, the citadel where Martin Luther held (1519) a disputation with the Roman Catholic theologian Johann Eck.

Founded as Lipsk by Slavic tribes before 1000, Leipzig was chartered by the margraves of Meissen, who first promoted the trade fairs, in the 12th century. In the 15th century the electors of Saxony granted the citizenry the right of self-government.

Leipzig acquired the sobriquet Kleine Paris ("Little Paris") in the 18th century, when it became a center of a classical literary movement under the leadership of the German scholar and writer Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700-66). Many prominent Germans studied at the University of Leipzig (known as Karl Marx University of Leipzig from 1953 to 1990), among them the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the composer J. S. Bach. In the 19th century Leipzig became one of the music centers of Europe. The German composer Felix Mendelssohn conducted concerts in the Gewandhaus (Drapers' Hall) from 1835 until his death in 1847. The philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and the composer Richard Wagner were born in the city.

Leipzig was besieged several times during the Thirty Years' War and was occupied (1631, 1642) after the battles of that war at nearby Breitenfeld. In October 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, a French force was decisively defeated at Leipzig. During World War II the city was extensively bombed by the Allied forces. Pop. (1992 est.) 503,191.