Today Leipzig is once again a city worth seeing. On my first visit there I was immediately blown away. Leipzig has something to offer for almost everyone, for me as a person interested in history it is a real treasure trove. History at every turn, through all eras, the buildings wonderfully restored. Shortly after the reunification it looked very different here; the enormous war damage was still felt everywhere, through vacant lots and unsightly post-war buildings. The old buildings were mostly neglected and crumbled away unnoticed. A lot has been achieved and you can get a good idea of what Leipzig once looked like in several places in the city. However, many wonderful buildings were lost forever due to the war and, unfortunately, irresponsible demolitions. Through my research for the Schönau books, I got to know a completely different city in addition to the current Leipzig that I was already so familiar with – the vanished Leipzig.
Let’s start with the university, which plays a major role in A Citizen of All Times as of the late 1920s and also appears again and again in Life’s Labyrinthine Course. The Alma Mater Lipsiensis is the second oldest university in the country and is already over 600 years old. You can hardly tell how old it is, which is unfortunately because the magnificent university buildings were destroyed by airstrikes during the Second World War. The various faculties were located in several parts of the city, so the medical students are to be found on Liebigstrasse, while the humanities students were able to enjoy the magical surroundings of the university courtyard. The geographical beginnings of the Alma Mater Lipsiensis can also be found here, at the university courtyard and Augustus Square; it is still the center of the university today. The oldest building that has survived to modern times was the University Pauliner Church (Paulinerkirche) from 1240. It beautified Augustusplatz for 728 years and was a familiar place for many students not only as a church, but also as an auditorium and ballroom – a sublime atmosphere!
The city center of Leipzig, and thus also the university, was exposed to several heavy bombing attacks between 1943 and 1945, which left hardly any of the well-known university buildings undestroyed. Even after the attacks, the Paulinerkirche stood almost intact amidst the rubble of Augustus Square, which was thanks to both its construction and the commitment of some Leipzig residents. How must they and the other Leipzig residents have felt in 1968 when the church was blown up for absolutely no reason! Immediately after the war, Augustus Square was renamed Karl-Marx-Square and the university was renamed Karl-Marx-Universität. The square was supposed to be redesigned, of course in the interests of the new rulers. There was no room for old things, and even less for anything church-related. Facts were twisted and arguments invented to downplay the church’s historical and architectural significance and to explain why it would be a nuisance in a newly designed modern square. (But it must also be said that West Germany, especially in the 1960s, often treated remaining old buildings ruthlessly as well – so it wasn’t just political motivation, the so-called zeitgeist also played a role. That does not make the destruction of this unique building less awful.) The demolition took place on May 30, 1968. The – generally extremely informative – archive of the University of Leipzig has pictures of the interior of the church and the site after the demolition.
For several years now, the Paulinum has been standing in place of the former Paulinerkirche, a modern reminiscence that fits well into the design of the new university buildings and is reminiscent of the destroyed church through its individual building elements and shape.
Café Felsche, formerly Café Français, was located right next to the Paulinerkirche until 1943. The name had to be changed at the beginning of the First World War due to anti-French sentiment – the high standard of the coffee house remained unchanged. Since the 1830s it had been a popular place for Leipzig’s best society to enjoy coffee and excellent patisserie. It must have been a real pleasure to snack on delicacies there and look at the wonderful panorama of what was then Augustus Square. Today you can also eat good food here at Vapiano, but unfortunately nothing remains of the historical flair as the building was completely destroyed in the airstrike of 1943. Fortunately, there are still excellent historic coffee houses in Leipzig, such as the Riquet. Next to the Riquet, a vacant lot reminds us of another victim of bombing and the senseless demolition mania. The impressive Renaissance building Deutrichs Hof one stood here until, like the Paulinerkirche, it was demolished in 1968.
But now back to the university, even on virtual time trips one shouldn’t sit around in coffee houses all the time. On the other side of the Paulinerkirche, the Augusteum is and was the main building of the university. The old Augusteum was built in the 1830s in the classicist style and was significantly expanded in the 1890s (the Albertinum, Johanneum and Paulinum were added as new wings). The university archives have a wonderful photo of Café Felsche, the Paulinerkirche and the Augusteum in a harmonious ensemble. When I look at the photo, I would love to go there straight away. Today this ensemble looks very different, as you can see here. Hardly recognizable, even if it certainly corresponds to today’s taste. The inside of the Augusteum also had something impressive and palatial about it.
My personal favourite among the old university buildings is the Bornerianum at the university courtyard, which looks so elegant and yet cozy. It stands out from the classicist buildings and is based on the Gothic style, which is fitting since some of the original medieval university buildings had to be removed for the construction of the Bornerianum. The humanities students found their place here for just over seventy years, from 1871 until its destruction in the airstrike of 1943. For the Germanists and historians mentioned in the Schönau books, this would have been the most visited building at the university. Unfortunately, today there is no trace of the Bornerianum left and the young people who spent many a lecture break here in my books would no longer recognize the once idyllic university courtyard from back then.
They would feel similar about Augustus Square. I already described how the former Augusteum-Paulinerkirche-Felsche ensemble has changed. The other three sides of the square also offer a completely different picture than before the war. I admit that today’s Augustus Square is not at all one of my favorite places in Leipzig. I would have loved to see the old square! Once part of the fortifications and then a park, the area was designed as a city center square as of the 1830s, not only with the aforementioned Augusteum and the coffee house, but also with an impressive main post office.
It was rebuilt in the 1880s and adapted to the general appearance of the square, and then appeared a little more official.
Unfortunately, the main post office was also completely destroyed in the airstrike of 1943 and replaced by one of the many socialist architectural sins of the 1960s. This building has now been thoroughly renovated and serves various purposes.
Two other architectural treasures that unfortunately belong to the vanished Leipzig are the Picture Museum and the New Theater. The Picture Museum beautified Augustus Square as of the 1850s, and the New Theater was added a decade later. Anyone who knows Leipzig a little and looks at the location of the New Theater in the picture already knows what is there today – the opera.
The new development is quite fitting because, contrary to its name, the New Theater was ultimately not the place where plays were performed, but was used as an opera house. It wasn’t originally intended that way, but the people of Leipzig are practical and the building was simply not particularly suitable for plays, but it could be used excellently for operas. You could still watch plays in another building, which was completed in the 1760s and was now called the Old Theater. It has once been called the “New Theater” (also “Comödienhaus”) … one can go from new to old so quickly. Both theaters were destroyed in the airstrike. While today’s opera house is pleasant in style and even somewhat reminiscent of the New Theater, there is no longer the slightest trace of the Old Theater. Where it once stood so picturesquely, today all you can see is a tram stop – it’s hardly possible to be less picturesque.
The Picture Museum also adapted well to the architectural style of Augutusplatz at the time – the square as a whole offered a very harmonious picture.
Here, too, the location shows the Leipzig connoisseur what is here today, especially because the Mende Well, which can be seen at the front right, is still there. Today you can see the new (third) Gewandhaus here, the style of which is a matter of taste. But where are all the paintings from the former picture museum? Fortunately, they were relocated before the museum was destroyed in the airstrike of 1943 and found temporary accommodation for a few decades. Now the Leipzig paintings also have a permanent home in the Museum of Fine Arts.
So where does the Gewandhaus at this location come from? Even before the war there was already a Gewandhaus in Leipzig, even two. As the name („Garment House“) does not suggest, the Gewandhaus was and is a concert hall. The name comes from the first Leipzig Gewandhaus, which was originally used by the Leipzig fabric and cloth merchants. It had a large hall whose acoustics made it ideal for musical performances and so it was used for concert performances for over a hundred years from the 1780s. Today only few remains of the first Gewandhaus can be viewed in the so-called municipal department store on Neumarkt.
The second Gewandhaus retained the name, but was built in the 1880s exclusively as a concert hall. Not so dissimilar to the opera at the time, it was a worthy building for the recognized Gewandhaus Orchestra. In front of the Gewandhaus there was a statue of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who lived in Leipzig for several years and worked as a bandmaster at the first Gewandhaus. (The Mendelssohn House, which is absolutely worth seeing and interesting, can be visited.) Of course, the monument to a Jewish composer didn’t suit the Nazis at all, but the then Leipzig Mayor Carl Goerdeler (who later went into the resistance and tragically paid for it with his life) fought to keep the monument. In 1936, the Nazis cowardly waited until Goerdeler was out of town for a few days and secretly dismantled the monument at night. Today there is a new monument in front of St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche).
Unfortunately, the beautiful building is one of the architectural treasures that did not survive the bombing. Not yet hopelessly lost after the attack in 1943, one of the airstrikes in 1944 left the house in ruins. Perhaps it could have been rebuilt, but like other Leipzig buildings it was demolished in 1968 and there is no trace of it left. But the way there is still worth it, because the Albertina University Library, which can be seen on the right side of the picture above, is worth a visit. The restored staircase is breathtaking and while the actual library is modern and functional, it’s still a relief to look inside and realize that the days of having to cram are over.
There are even more vanished places in Leipzig, but these are the buildings that are very close to my heart (even if I only know them from pictures). It was fun to resurrect this old Leipzig while writing, many of these places play an important, recurring role in the books, and it even hurt a little to describe their destruction Life’s Labyrinthine Course.
The charming harmony of Augutus Square, which can only be seen in pictures, and the contrast to its current appearance gives me an idea of what has disappeared here forever. When one of the main characters in A Citizen of All Times in 1931 enthusiastically uses Augustus Square as an illustration of the fact that, as Schiller once said, “history alone remains constantly on the scene, an immortal citizen of all nations and times,” then he – back then! – didn’t choose the worst place in Leipzig to illustrate that. There were buildings from several eras here, witnesses to various historical events, of which only the Mende Well, built in the 1880s, still stands today. Since 1931, Augustus Square has witnessed a further host of historical events – unpleasant ones such as the march of the brown hordes there in 1933, the November pogrom in 1938 (which destroyed the posh and popular men’s outfitter Bamberger & Hertz on the square) or the horrific airstrike of December 4, 1943. Augustus Square was one of the main places of debris clearance after the war and of course one of the places of an utterly joyful event – the peaceful revolution of 1989, which we so discreetly call “the turnaround”.
Photos : Wikipedia, public domain
Heike Wolf - Historische Romane 