Dear reader,

In the war years 1939-1945 I lived in Leipzig, which was amalgamated with East-Germany.I left in 1947 to cross over to West Germany.  I thought it might be interesting how I found the town to be after the unification in 1989.  I visited my brother, Dietrich, who still lives in Leipzig for the first time in 1992.

First I will start to give you some of Leipzig's history so that you get to know the town a little.

 

Leipzig the Messe Stadt

Center of the Book- and Technical fair. 

Leipzig stands in the heart of Saxony, not far from the Czechoslovakian border.

Archeologists have established that the first Germanic tribes had settled there about 4000 years BC.  This area has always been ideal for agriculture, being flat and rich on soil, at the same time breaking the monotony with copses and lakes.

The rivers Pleisse, Pathe and Elster provided plenty of fish.  (But as long as I can remember those rivers have been polluted by all the Chemical Plants in this region.)

In the last two years, after the unification, the rivers have been cleaned and huge fish swim again in its clear waters.

During the migration of peoples, Germanic tribes retreated towards the West.  Wars and starvation had driven them from their settlements. In the 7th and 8th century the Slavs came into this area.  They were the first to give Leipzig, which was then a fishing village, its name "Lipzi," which means " under the Linden trees."  Later Germanic tribes pushed the Slavs back to the East.  In the North-East of Leipzig remains to this day a small self-governing Slavish community.

In the 11th century Leipzig started to trade, at first with the neighbouring villages.  An exclusion zone of 47 km was enforced where no one else was allowed to trade in order to give Leipzig a chance to grow.

Leipzig was then not a residential town.  Only traders and their families lived there.  They had impressive buildings erected to accommodate their private needs.  Rooms for offices and meeting rooms were built on top.  This made up a complex of a square with warehouses at the back.

In 1165 this trade started to be world-wide.  It has only been interrupted by wars.

In the thirty year war mercenaries brought death and destruction to the countryside and towns.  People lived in great fear, were starving and died of many diseases.  Old story books refer to those mercenaries as Werewolf's.  Before Leipzig came to great harm in this war, king Gustav Adolph of Sweden arrived with his Army to help defend Leipzig.  The town was saved.  Sadly the king had been killed.  A memorial Chapel and a Neo-Gothic-Canopy were erected in his memory and stands to this day on the very spot where he had been killed in the year 1632.

From 1610 until 1666 occurred a great witch hunt.  A Leipzig Bannister alone signed 22,000 death warrants.  At that time a street was named after him.  Now the same street is named after a Concentration-Camp inmate "Hans Heise," who had been murdered on 8. February 1945.

On their return from the defeat in Russia, Napoleon and his Army were attacked after settling in Leipzig.  Hungarians, Russians, Prussians and Austrians wanted to end Napoleons ruler ship.  It ended in a bloodbath.  Napoleons Army was beaten.  He and the remainder of his Army escaped one night with the help of a German postman to lead them through alley ways.  It had left 120,000 dead soldiers and many wounded in and around Leipzig, which had then only 30,000 inhabitants.

Financial help was sent from London to build Leipzig up again.  Great damage had been done to many buildings during the battle.

To commemorate this terrific event, a huge Egyptian-like-Monument was then erected solely out of granite stone.  Many nine meter high statues stand in and around this monument.  500 steps lead to the very top, from there on a balcony, giving a panoramic view over Leipzig.

This Monument, "The Monument of the battle of all Nations" had been opened  after one hundred years to the day of the battle.  Sometime later a Russian Orthodox Church had been built and was opened also in 1913.  The crypt still holds the bones of the Russian officers killed in this Napoleon war.

In May 1945 SS troops tried to hold out in there against the Americans.  With them they had one year's provisions.  Some little damage was done to the Monument by some shells.  The SS men soon gave up.

Inside this Monument is a large dome.  On occasions concerts were given inside there, because of his fantastic acoustic.

In 1942 the World Fair had been closed, but was reopened in 1946.  Even so the center of Leipzig was still in ruins, hotels were being built to accommodate foreign traders.  In the meantime women did the clearing up and also repairing the roads, as nearly all the men were still in prison camps.

 

To be continued.