Thomaskirche Area

From 1723 until his death in 1750 Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor of the Thomaskirche, Thomaskirchhof 18. Most of his cantatas, oratorios, and passions were first performed here. Martin Luther preached here in 1539 and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy performed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion here to reintroduce his work to the general public in 1841. During Bach’s time, the church interior was Baroque and richly decorated with colorful paintings and biblical verses. However, it was remodeled in a Neo-Gothic style during 1884-89, leaving the interior rather bare. After a detour in the local graveyard and the now-destroyed Johanniskirche, Bach’s body was finally buried here in the chancel after World War II. A statue of Bach was erected in front of the church in 1908.

Johann Sebastian Bach Museum in the Bose Haus, Thomaskirchhof 15-16, is a bit disappointing. Bach became nationally and then internationally famous only long after his death and consequently few items remained that could be directly attributed to his life. The Museum is on the second floor and consists mainly of information and copies of documents relating to the great composer’s life. All information is in German only, but audio guides are available in English. Apart from the information panels, there are a few pieces of furniture and a Bible that belonged to Bach as well as an exhibition of period instruments. A video on Bach and a collection of CDs with a discussion in German of some of his works can be listened to in comfortable chairs with high quality earphones. The library and archives on the premises have a vast collection of music and documents relating to Bach.

The Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall), Martin Luther Ring 4-6, was built at the start of the 20th century and still serves as the seat of the local government. The building was extensively restored in the 1990s and has richly decorated façades and roof structures.

A building closely resembling the original Reichstag in Berlin is the former Reichsgericht (Supreme Court of the Empire). From 1879, the highest court of the German Empire resided in Leipzig and from 1895 in this building. Its most spectacular ruling was the “not guilty” verdict for Georgij Dimitroff, who was accused by the Nazis, with Hermann Goering leading the case in person, of instigating the burning of the Reichstag in 1933. After the war, it housed the Museum of Fine Arts, then, since 2002, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administration Court).

One of Leipzig’s most interesting museums is the Museum in der “Runden Ecke” (literally Museum in the Round Corner), Dittrichring 24. It is housed in the former Leipzig head office of the feared and despised Stasi, the secret police of the German Democratic Republic. The site was known as the Round Corner due to the curvature of the building. The Stasi managed to know a lot of what the citizens were up to through a wide network of spies, the illegal opening of mail, and wiretapping of phones. On display are some of the machines designed to open and close letters – up to 2,000 per day – as well as ones designed to read the contents of some without having to open the actual envelope. Money was routinely stolen from the mail and suspect letters routinely photographed onto microfiche. The technology to spy on their own citizens was highly developed and several small cameras and listening devices designed to be hidden in bags and clothes are on display. The Stasi’s ability to fake documents, both domestic and foreign, was impressive, as was the makeup and the planning that went into secret sting operations. The paranoia reached far and near: after the fall of the regime, a permanently staffed telephone listening post was found inside the Stasi building itself. Thousands of files that were kept on ordinary citizens are on display. An enormous pile of shredded paper bears testimony to the attempts to destroy as much as possible in the final days of the regime. Probably the oddest item on display is a collection of bottles with people’s smells! The Stasi was convinced that they could develop reliable technology to identify people by smell and collected swabs and pieces of clothing for record keeping.

The coffee shop Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum, Feine Fleischergasse 4, opened in 1694 and has been in continuous operation ever since. It therefore is the oldest coffee shop in the world, although a Parisian establishment disputes this. It has three coffee shops and three restaurants on the premises, as well as a Coffee Museum (free entry) on the second and third floors. On display are all sorts of paraphernalia associated with coffee since its introduction to Europe from the East.