Leipzig (Upper Saxon: Leibzsch or Leibz'sch) is the biggest city in the state of Saxony (eastern Germany). When Germany was divided into East and West Germany, Leipzig was one of the three biggest industrial cities in the East Germany.

Leipzig occupies  and is still an industrial city. 510,651 people are living in Leipzig as of 29 February 2008.

History 
Its Latin name is Lipsia and the German name "Leipzig" came from this name. Leipzig has a long history. Its name was first recorded as Leipzig Castle (Leipziger Burg) in 1015, and the official founding of the city occurred later in 1165. It was an economic center of Medieval Germany, famous with its market (Leipziger Messe).

In 1409, Leipzig University was started. Theology was its major faculty. In 1519, Martin Luther had a discussion in Leipzig against Johann Eck. Reformation came to Leipzig in 1539 and the city people became Lutheran.

It is famous for St. Thomas Church, where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as music director (Kantor) from 1723 until his death in 1750.

In 1813 near Leipzig, the Battle of Leipzig was fought between the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the allied armies of Austria, Prussia and Russia.

In 1839, the railway between Dresden and Leipzig was opened. It was the first long distance railroad in Germany.

As a result of industrialization, the number of people living in Leipzig grew during the 19th century. Before World War II, there were about 750,000 people in Leipzig.

After the war, Leipzig belonged to the part of Germany occupied by the Soviet Union, and later to East Germany.

In 1989, the Monday Demonstrations took place in Leipzig. Every monday after a Christian mess in the Nikolaikirche the Leipzig people demonstrate for freedom to travel and democracy. These demonstrations became bigger and bigger and reached their peak on 23 October when 320,000 people came. The demonstrations are one of the things that lead to the end of communist dictatorship in East Germany.

Today, Leipzig is still known as a city of fairs, media and university, but is less important than it was before World War II.

Economy 
Before World War II, Leipzig was a famous center of commerce (Leipzig exhibition) and industry. Now, there are big companies in Leipzig like Porsche, BMW, Siemens and DHL, as well as the Leipzig Airport.

Population 

With almost 511,000 people, Leipzig city proper is the 12th biggest city in Germany and the 2nd biggest in what was East Germany (DDR), smaller than East Berlin and bigger than Dresden. Leipzig urban has 567,000 people. The total population of Leipzig metropolitan area is 1,389,000.

Geography 

Leipzig, Chemnitz, Dresden, Halle, and Zwickau form an area called the Saxon Triangle, which has about 3,500,000 people.

Miscellaneous 

Leipzig has a university where famous people studied (e.g. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Edvard Grieg, Erich Kästner, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Angela Merkel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner.) The Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is the biggest terminal station in Europe. It sees about 150,000 passengers each day. It is 293 meters wide.

Sister cities

 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since 2004
 Birmingham, UK, since 1992
 Bologna, Italy, since 1962, renewed in 1997
 Brno, Czech Republic, since 1973, renewed in 1999
 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, since 1990
 Hanover, Germany, since 1987
 Houston, United States, since 1993
 Kyiv, Ukraine, since 1961, renewed in 1992
 Lyon, France, since 1981</
 Nanjing, China, since 1988
 Plovdiv, Bulgaria, since 1975, renewed in 2007
 Thessaloniki, Greece, since 1984
 Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 2003
 Herzliya, Israel, since 2010

References

Other websites