In 1813 much of the Battle of Leipzig took place where today's Markkleeberg is situated. During 1944 and 1945, a forced labor camp for women was established in the town, initially a subcamp of the Ravensbrück concentration camp and later of Buchenwald. Among the inmates were a thousand Jewish women from Hungary and 250 French resistance fighters. In early April 1945, the surviving inmates were transferred to the Mauthausen-Gusen camp in Austria.