Location and development
The square is bordered in the east by Ritterstrasse and in the west by Nikolaistrasse. That's why only properties on its north and south sides have the address Nikolaikirchhof. [2] On the north side is the renovated building of the Alte Nikolaischule (in English: Old school St. Nicholas) with the Museum of Antiquities of Leipzig University, a Richard Wagner museum considering his childhood and youth [3] and the Gasthaus Alte Nikolaischule, with outdoor seating in the summer. The second building on the north side is the Predigerhaus (House of the preachers), built in 1886/1887 according to plans by Hugo Licht. [4]
Of the approximately 70 m (229.7 ft) by 70 m (229.7 ft) square, around 40% is taken up by the St. Nicholas Church itself. The church stands on the southern half of the square, so that there is only a square on its north side; to the south there is only about the width of the street. Of the commercial buildings adjacent to the south, only one is part of St. Nicholas Church Square. The rest are continuous properties from Grimmaische Strasse.
The view of the Nikolaikirchhof is limited to the east on Ritterstrasse by the university guest house on the site of the former booksellers' exchange (Buchhändlerbörse) and the Geschwister-Scholl-Haus, and to the west on Nikolaistrasse by Specks Hof and the Motel One.
History
The history of the square next to the church probably goes back to the church construction that began in the twelfth century. The city charter from 1165/1216 referred to the settlement east of Reichsstrasse (Via Imperii). [5] With St. Nicholas Church as the center, it formed another settlement focus in early Leipzig, which was a little further to the southeast than the "Urbs Lipzi". [6] Saint Nicholas was the patron of the merchants who settled here. In terms of the quarterly division of the city area within the city wall, the St. Nicholas quarter (Nikolaiviertel) roughly corresponds to the Grimmaisches Quarter. [7]
As far as the St. Nicholas Church Square is concerned, there is evidence that the school St. Nicholas (Nikolaischule) was built in 1512 after the demolition of a previous house. [8] In 1573 a Renaissance fountain was created at the west end of the square, which was replaced by a new fountain in 1657. This is no longer present in pictures from the 19th century.
By the end of the 19th century, the north side of the square had been built up with a front of three-story houses for at least 200 years. A residential and commercial building on the western corner was followed by the Nikolaischule, which was only combined with the corner house during the last renovation, which can still be seen in the window structure. Then followed the priest's house, which were replaced by the Predigerhaus.
The St. Nicholas Church Square acquired particular importance in connection with the events of the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 in Leipzig. [9] In September 1989, the clashes between demonstrators and the state came to a head following the Monday peace prayer in the St. Nicholas Church in the Church Square, [10] as the Monday demonstration was supposed to be nipped in the bud. Most of the arrests took place in the St. Nicholas Church Square until the decisive demonstration took place on 9 October 1989. [1]
Memorial monuments to the Peaceful Revolution
In view of its importance for the peaceful revolution of 1989, several memorial monuments were erected in the St. Nicholas Church Square.
A 16 m (52.5 ft) tall column was erected on the east side of the square in 1999. It is a replica of the columns within the church and symbolizes how the ideas of departure were carried from the church into the public space. The palm fronds at the top of the column represent the peacefulness of the goals. The column is part of the design with which the Leipzig artist Andreas Stötzner won an international competition to design the square organized by the Leipzig Cultural Foundation Kulturstiftung Leipzig and the city in 1992. [11] The column was made by the Leipzig sculptor Markus Brille. Two-thirds of the funding comes from donations from citizens, companies and institutions. [12]
The column includes a memorial plaque embedded in the pavement of the square, also made by Brille, with the inscription “09 OCTOBER 1989” and numerous shoe prints depicting the demonstration. [13]
A fountain and a light installation followed in 2003 with the support of the Foundation Stiftung Lebendige Stadt. The fountain was designed by the Berlin branch of David Chipperfield Architects. [14] A bowl made of granite from Lausitz with a diameter of 3.3 m (10.8 ft) filled to the brim with water symbolizes the political situation in the GDR in 1989, in which “every drop could be the last straw”.
For the light installation “Public Light” by the artists Tilo Schulz and Kim Worterlkamp, 144 lighting elements are embedded in the pavement of the square, [13] which are switched on randomly in the colors blue, green and magenta within three hours after dark. These points of light represent coming together for a peaceful assembly.
The St. Nicholas Church is one of the major churches of central Leipzig, Germany. Construction started in Romanesque style in 1165, but in the 16th century, the church was turned into a Gothic hall church. Baroque elements like the tower were added in the 18th century.
Gohlis is a locality in the borough north of the city of Leipzig, Germany. Once a village and knightly estate (Rittergut), it became in 1838 a rural community (Landgemeinde). It urbanised during the Gründerzeit period of the 19th century and was incorporated into the city of Leipzig in 1890. Gohlis is now divided into three administrative localities, all of which belong to the Stadtbezirk Nord of Leipzig. Dominated by residential buildings from the late-19th and first half of the 20th century, Gohlis has a population of more than 45,000 inhabitants (2020).
Christian was a Protestant pastor and one of the leading figures and organisers of the 1989 Monday demonstrations in East Germany which finally led to German reunification and the end of the GDR in 1990.
The Brühl is a street in the centre of Leipzig, Germany, just within the former city wall. Until the 1930s, it was the international centre of fur trade.
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 fountains in Leipzig were originally built as part of the city's water supply and in the 19th and 20th centuries others were added for decorative functions. They are regarded as objects of historical and art historical interest.
The Monday demonstrations were a series of peaceful political protests against the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The demonstrations began in Leipzig on 4 September 1989, starting the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the government, and German reunification.
Katrin Hattenhauer is a German painter and civil rights activist. In the late 1980s she was a member of the GDR-opposition movement. On 4 September 1989 she demonstrated "For an Open Country with Free People", marking the beginning of the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig. Her paintings and social sculptures have been exhibited in Europe.
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 Old Town Hall, which dominates the east side of the Markt square in Leipzig's district Mitte, is considered one of Germany's most important secular Renaissance buildings. At the rear is the Naschmarkt. The mayor and the municipal administration have been housed in the New Town Hall since 1905.
Hieronymus Lotter was a merchant and several times mayor of Leipzig, construction manager for important sovereign building projects in Saxony and the driving force behind extensive building measures by the municipal council in Leipzig. Lotter was the Master builder of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, under the direction of the principal toolmaster and master builder Caspar Vogt von Wierandt. According to earlier research, he was considered an important architect of the Renaissance; today its role is seen in a more differentiated way and above all its organizational function is emphasized.
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 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 Mädler Arcade Gallery is the last completely preserved historic shopping arcade covered by an end-to-end glass roof in the city center of Leipzig. It is a facility of upmarket retail, restaurants, offices and cultural establishments.
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 Naschmarkt is a small square in the city center of Leipzig. It owes its name to a time when fruit was traded here, which was also considered a sweet treat at the time. Today it serves as an open-air restaurant in the warmer months of the year, while before Christmas it hosts part of the Christmas market.
Specks Hof is a commercial building with the oldest preserved shopping arcade in Leipzig, Germany. The complex near St. Nicholas Church is an example of Leipzig's trade fair and trading buildings, which were built at the beginning of the 20th century.
