Former name(s) | Platz vor dem Grimmaischen Tor, Karl-Marx-Platz |
---|---|
Length | 215 m (705 ft) |
Width | 185 m (607.0 ft) |
Location | Leipzig-Mitte, Leipzig, Germany |
Postal code | 04109 |
Coordinates | 51°20′21″N12°22′51″E / 51.33917°N 12.38083°E |
The Augustusplatz is a square located at the east end of the city centre of Leipzig, borough Leipzig-Mitte. It is the city's largest square and one of the largest squares in Europe. It is also part of the city's inner-city ring-road and a central hub for its tram network.
The history of today's square began in 1785 (see also: Promenadenring) on a site within the city walls as the Platz vor dem Grimmaischen Tor (Square in front of the Grimma Gate ) to designs by the city architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. It was renamed Augustusplatz in 1839 after Frederick Augustus, the first king of Saxony. In 1928 the social-democratic city government renamed it Karl-Marx-Platz , though this name proved unpopular and was ignored even in newspaper articles and town plans. In 1933 the Nazis renamed it Augustusplatz, then in 1953 it became Karl-Marx-Platz again, and finally in 1990 (on the day of German reunification) it returned to its current name of Augustusplatz. [1]
The main buildings of the Fair town are grouped round the Augustusplatz, which, in spite of an enormous amount of traffic, is very dignified and is the headquarters of commercial life of Leipzig.
It is now dominated by the Opernhaus [3] on its northern edge, the Neues Gewandhaus [4] (with the Mendebrunnen) [5] on southern side, and the main buildings of the University of Leipzig, including the City-Hochhaus Leipzig [6] on the western side bordering the city centre. Destruction during the Second World War and the radical city-planning policies of the GDR both mean the Augustusplatz has lost its historical appearance: the previous main post office (Hauptpost), [7] the newly built "Blu Radisson Hotel Leipzig" (former names: Hotel Mercure, Interhotel am Ring, Hotel Deutschland) and the university complex [8] are all built mainly of concrete and steel in the style of the 1960s or later. In May 1968, for example, the bomb-damaged Augusteum and the university church that had suffered little damage (Paulinerkirche) were both dynamited. [9] From 4 September 1989 to 1990, Monday demonstrations took place. [10] [11] From 1996 to 1998 an underground car park was built under the Augustusplatz with many entrances and ventilation shafts leading on to the square, the construction of which proved controversial. The carpark's eight illuminated glass cylinders housing the stairwells have been mocked in particular, being nicknamed "Milchtöpfe" or milk-bottles.
The construction of the university's new main building or Paulinum involved a fierce controversy over the possible reconstruction of the university church between 2002 and 2004. Although completion of the complex was hoped for in 2009 for the university's 600th anniversary, the new Augusteum was completed not sooner than 2012. [12] The new Paulinum recalls with its auditorium and the gabled roof the style of the former Augusteum and the demolished church. Its opening, which was also planned for 2009, was delayed until the beginning of December 2017. [13] In the meantime, disputes about the future use of the new building on the site of the Paulinerkirche led to a blockage of the work, [14] later there were complications with the completion of the glass columns for the interior of the building. [15]
The main part of the university complex facing Augustusplatz was redesigned according to plans by the architect Erick van Egeraat.
On 9 October 2009, a public art object by the artist Via Lewandowsky, the Democracy Bell, was unveiled opposite the curve of the tram tracks at Grimmaische Strasse. It commemorates the Monday demonstration on 9 October 1989. The bell rings every Monday at 6:35 p.m., which was around the time the demonstration began, also every 9 October at 10:30 a.m., and every day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. within each full hour randomly with one up to twelve beats. The bell is made of bronze and has the shape of an egg about three feet tall. [16]
Augustusplatz is also the name of a major interchange station in the Leipzig tram network of the Leipzig Transport Company. The interchange station is designed as a crossing stop, with two tracks running in a north–south direction on the inner city ring road (east side of Augustusplatz) and two more in an east–west direction on the middle lane on Augustusplatz (in the relation between Goethestraße and Grimmaischer Steinweg). If the middle lane is closed during events, tram traffic is guaranteed by the fact that the affected lines can turn from the stop on the inner city ring into Grimmaischer Steinweg via a connecting curve.
The trains of lines 8, 10, 11, 14, 16 and N10 stop at the tram stop at the eastern edge (before the crossing) and those of lines 4, 7, 12, 15 and N17 at the tram stop on the central lane. At both stops can stop two trains at the same time in each direction. [17]
Leipzig is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the eighth-largest city in Germany and is part of the Central German Metropolitan Region. The name of the city is usually interpreted as a Slavic term meaning place of linden trees, in line with many other Slavic placenames in the region.
City-Hochhaus is 36-story skyscraper in Leipzig, Germany. At 142.5 m (468 ft), it is the tallest multistory building in Leipzig and is located proximately of the eastern part of the inner city ring road in Leipzig's district Mitte. The tower was designed by architect Hermann Henselmann in the shape of an open book, and built between 1968 and 1972. It followed Henselmann's idea to cap central places in cities with a prominent tower, such as the Jen-Tower in Jena and Fernsehturm in Berlin.
Goerdelerring is a street and major tram interchange station in Leipzig, Germany. It is named after Carl Friedrich Goerdeler.
The Augusteum was a building on the Augustusplatz in Leipzig, Germany, to the left of the Paulinerkirche. It was built on the 1543 site of the University of Leipzig and served as its main building.
The Paulinerkirche was a church on the Augustusplatz in Leipzig. It was built in 1231 as the Klosterkirche St. Pauli for the Dominican monastery in Leipzig. From the foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409, it served as the university church. After the Protestant Reformation it was donated to the university and was inaugurated in 1545 by Martin Luther as the Universitätskirche St. Pauli, later also called Unikirche. Johann Sebastian Bach was director of music for "festal" (holiday) services in 1723−25.
Waldstraßenviertel, is a neighbourhood in the north west of Leipzig's borough Mitte in Saxony, Germany. It is considered one of the largest complete areas of Gründerzeit buildings in Europe and is therefore considered of important cultural and heritage status. Many of its buildings are therefore protected or listed.
Richard-Wagner-Platz is a square in Leipzig in the northwest of Leipzig city centre within Leipzig's "ring road" on the northwest corner. The square is named after the composer Richard Wagner, whose house of birth was nearby.
The history of the architecture of Leipzig extends from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Numerous typical buildings and valuable cultural monuments from different eras are still preserved or have been rebuilt. Leipzig, Germany, begins its architectural history with several buildings in the Romanesque style. An example of Gothic architecture in Leipzig is the late Gothic hall vault of the Thomaskirche (1482/1496). In the early modern period, the Old Town Hall was expanded in the Renaissance style. The city experienced the peak of urban design and artistic development from around 1870 to 1914 with historicism, Reformarchitektur and Art Nouveau. Numerous trade fair palaces, commercial buildings, representative buildings such as the Imperial Court Building and the new town hall and the arcade galleries known for the city were built. After the First World War, Leipzig became known for its neoclassicism. During the air raids on Leipzig in World War II, large parts of the city center, which was rich in historic buildings, were destroyed. This was followed in the post-war period by (socialist) neoclassicism and modernism.
Alte Messe Leipzig is the circa 50 hectares site in the southeastern part of Leipzig's district Mitte, where from 1920 until 1991 the technical exhibitions of the Leipzig Trade Fair took place, as well as the buildings that stand on it – but not the trade fair itself, which found a new home at a new site in the northern part of Leipzig. Since 1996 there has been no trade fair activity on the old site.
The Inner City Ring Road in Leipzig in the district of Mitte is the ring road around Leipzig's city centre. It encloses the just 0.7 km2 (0.27 sq mi) large area of the old town without the former Vorstadts.
Leipzig-Mitte is one of ten boroughs (Stadtbezirke) of Leipzig, located in the center of the city. It includes numerous architectural monuments. Most of them are located in the subdivision "Zentrum", which is sited inside the Inner City Ring Road and the Promenadenring:
The Europahaus in Leipzig is a 13-storey and 56 m (184 ft) tall listed office building at Augustusplatz 7.
The Promenadenring Leipzig is the oldest municipal landscape park in Germany and one of the most important garden and cultural monuments in the city. The term is also used as a synonym for Leipzig's inner city ring road, a traffic facility that is connected to the green spaces of the Promenadenring. Like the inner city ring road, the promenade ring is about 3.6 kilometers long (2.24 mi.).
The Rundling, also called "Nibelungensiedlung", is a circular housing estate in the southern part of Leipzig in the Lößnig neighborhood.
The Wintergartenhochhaus is a 32-story high-rise building in Leipzig-Mitte, subdivision Ostvorstadt. The residential building was built from 1970 to 1972 as Wohnhochhaus Wintergartenstraße and is the third tallest high-rise in Leipzig after the City-Hochhaus and the Hotel The Westin. With a total height of 106.8 m (350 ft) and 95.5 m (313 ft) roof height, it was the tallest residential building in the East Germany and is now in the top hundred on the list of high-rise buildings in Germany. As a building of modernity and testimony of East German architectural history with rarity value, it is under cultural heritage protection.
The Markt is a square of about 1 ha in Leipzig's district of Mitte, Germany. It is considered the center of the city. The Old Town Hall stands on it, which demonstrates its particular historical importance. The square was named Platz des Friedens from 1950 to 1954. Its paving is a listed heritage monument.
Grimmaische Strasse is a street in Leipzig, borough Leipzig-Mitte, and connects the marketplace with Augustusplatz. It was named in 1839 after the Grimma Gate (Grimmaisches Tor), the gateway to Grimma, which was first mentioned in 1421. Before that it was called Grimmaische Gasse and was the main street of the Grimma quarter. Today it is a heavily frequented pedestrian zone in a prime location with department stores, shops, restaurants, hotels, a museum and the university as residents.
The 43 m (141 ft) tall Kroch high-rise in Leipzig was the first high-rise building in the city. It was built in 1927/28 as the headquarter of the Kroch Banking House, a private bank of the German-Jewish banker Hans Kroch (1887–1970), and is located on the west side of Augustusplatz. It is topped by a clock and two buff sentries modelled after the St Mark's Clocktower in Venice.
The Leipzig city gates were structural facilities that existed from the Middle Ages to the 19th century to regulate and control the movement of people and goods into and out of the city of Leipzig, Germany. They initially also had a defensive function. In addition to the four main gates and the five known smaller gates (wickets) through the city wall, several so-called outer gates were later added, which controlled the access roads to the city as secondary gates. None of the gates remain at their original locations.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), 4 April 2012, retrieved 2 May 2012.Media related to Augustusplatz (Leipzig) at Wikimedia Commons