Augustusplatz

Augustusplatz with the Bildermuseum and Mendebrunnen, in 1890-1900

Neues Theater on Augustusplatz, in 1900

Neubau der Oper

The Augustusplatz in May 2007

The Augustusplatz is a square located at the east end of the city centre of Leipzig. It is the city's largest square and one of the largest (and, prior to almost all its buildings being destroyed in bombing in the Second World War, the most beautiful) squares in Germany. It is also part of the city's inner-city ring-road and a central hub for its tram network.

History

It was begun in 1785 on a site within the city walls as the Platz vor dem Grimmaischen Thor to designs by the city architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. but 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 National Socialists renamed it Augustusplatz, then in 1953 it became Karl-Marx-Platz again, and finally in 1990 (on the same day as reunification) it returned to its current name of Augustusplatz.

It is now dominated by the Opernhaus on Nordrand, the Neuen Gewandhaus (with the Mendebrunnen) on Südrand and the main buildings of the University of Leipzig, including the City-Hochhaus Leipzig in the inner-city facing west. 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 Hauptpost, the newly-built Radisson SAS Hotel (formerly the Hotel Mercure) and the University are all "Plattenbauten". In May 1968, for example, the bomb-damaged Augusteum and the intact university Paulinerkirche were both dynamited. In 1996 a carpark was built under the Augustusplatz, where many of the buildings had their entrances or ventilation shafts, though its construction proved controversial. The carpark's eight illuminated glass cylinders housing the stairwells have been particularly mocked, being nicknamed "Milchtöpfe" or milk-bottles.

The University's New Building or Neubau was built between 2002 and 2004 and involved a fierce controversy over the possible reconstruction of the university church. The courts should give new impetus to this and the new complex will not be completed until the University's 600th anniversary in 2009. The Augustusplatz will be mostly redesigned to plans by the architect Erick van Egeraat, with an auditorium whose gabled roof and style recall the destroyed church. The architect has already announced that in the realization of his overall design the appearances of the 1996-1998 "Platzaufbauten" cannot be maintained in their present form.