Leipzig (also Leibzsch in the Saxon dialect) is an independent city and with 601,866 inhabitants (December 31, 2021) or 624,689 (according to the population register on December 31, 2022) the most populous city in the Free State of Saxony. In 2021, it ranked eighth in the list of major cities in Germany. For Central Germany, it is a historic center of business, trade and transport, administration, culture and education and is currently a center for the "creative scene". Leipzig is one of the six regional centers in Saxony and, together with the city of Halle (Saale) in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, around 35 kilometers away, forms the transnational metropolitan area of Leipzig-Halle, in which around 1.2 million people live. With Halle and other cities in the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, Leipzig is part of the polycentric metropolitan region of Central Germany. After being granted city rights and market privileges around 1165, Leipzig already developed into an important trading center during the German Ostsiedlung. Leipzig's tradition as an important trade fair location in Central Europe with one of the oldest trade fairs in the world dates back to 1190 and was closely linked to Leipzig's longstanding role as an international center of the fur trade. From 1937 to 1945, during the National Socialist period, Leipzig officially bore the honorary title of Reichsmessestadt. The city is a historical center of book printing and trade. In addition, Leipzig is home to one of the oldest universities and the oldest colleges for both commerce and music in Germany. Leipzig has a great musical tradition that goes back above all to the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and is based, among other things, on the importance of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Thomanerchor. In the course of the Monday demonstrations in 1989, which provided decisive impetus for the turnaround in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Leipzig was described as a hero city. The informal award for the courageous and peaceful commitment of many Leipzig citizens in the vicinity of Leipzig's Nikolaikirche shaped the city's reputation after reunification and is taken up in city marketing under the motto "Leipzig Freedom".
(Source: Wikipedia)
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