Leipzig

LEIPZIG

LEIPZIG. Leipzig was a center of trade, religious organization and innovation, music, printing, and education in the Holy Roman Empire. The population of the town grew from about 9,000 in 1500 to about 30,000 in 1800. Contemporaries often contrasted Leipzig's commercial atmosphere to the court-dominated atmosphere of Dresden, the other main Saxon urban center. From 1485, when the territory of Saxony was divided into electoral and ducal portions, until 1547, Leipzig was located in ducal Saxony. When Duke Maurice was awarded the electoral title in 1547, Leipzig became part of electoral Saxony.

Leipzig was influenced by the course of Saxon politics in many ways. The city's economic and cultural boom from the late seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century was in part the result of Saxony's political prominence under the rule of Frederick Augustus I (ruled 1694–1733) and Frederick Augustus II (ruled 1733–1763). Similarly, the timing and degree of the city's involvement in the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547), the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), and the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815) were conditioned by territorial politics. The electoral court also influenced local politics, although historians have recently emphasized the power of local elites. The Leipzig city council was divided into three rotating groups, each typically made up of twelve councillors and one mayor, who served a one-year term as the governing or "sitting" council. About half of the councillors were merchants, and half were lawyers. Election was by co-optation (new members were chosen by the existing members). Eligibility to serve on the council was not formally restricted, but most councillors were members of well-established local merchant and professional families.

Artisanal production, the university, and the printing industry were all important sectors of the local economy. About seventy trades were represented in the city; the university's thousand-plus students helped support the entertainment, luxury, and printing trades. Also key were Leipzig's trade fairs, held three times a year. The fairs achieved dominance in Saxony and Thuringia by 1500, and from the 1680s onward, they were the largest in central Europe. Leipzig became one of the main German distribution centers for colonial goods.

Leipzig had become a cultural center by the fifteenth century. A university that became one of the most prominent in Germany was founded there in 1409. By the eve of the Reformation, the city housed numerous monasteries, and the two main churches, St. Nicholas and St. Thomas, were the object of endowments by the city council, guilds, and individuals. Some burghers were early adherents of the Lutheran doctrine preached in nearby electoral Saxony. However, the Reformation was officially introduced into the city only in 1539, when Duke Heinrich succeeded his brother George, who had remained Catholic. Leipzig's clerics soon became well-known and influential in the Lutheran world. The next major religious dispute erupted in 1689, when a group of reformist students and burghers known as Pietists challenged mainstream orthodox clerics. High baroque culture thrived in Leipzig from the 1680s onward, with a boom in public and private architecture, fashion, entertainment, and secular and sacred music, most notably represented by Johann Sebastian Bach, who served as town cantor from 1723 to 1750. Leipzig was also a center of Enlightenment printing and debate.

See also Bach Family ; Dresden ; Pietism ; Printing and Publishing ; Saxony .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bräuer, Helmut. Der Leipziger Rat und die Bettler: Quellen und Analysen zu Bettlern und Bettelwesen in der Messestadt bis ins 18. Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1997.

Duclaud, Jutta, and Rainer Ducland. Leipziger Zünfte. Berlin, 1990.

Kevorkian, Tanya. Baroque Piety: Religious Practices and Society in Leipzig, 1650–1750. Forthcoming.

——. "The Rise of the Poor, Weak, and Wicked: Poor Care, Punishment, Religion, and Patriarchy in Leipzig, 1700–1730." Journal of Social History 34 (2000): 163–181.

Martens, Wolfgang, ed. Leipzig: Aufklärung und Burgerlichkeit. Heidelberg, 1990.

Pevsner, Nikolaus. Leipziger Barock: Die Baukunst der Barockzeit in Leipzig. Dresden, 1928. Reprint: Leipzig, 1990.

Stiller, Günther. Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig. Translated by Herbert J. A. Bouman, Daniel F. Poellet, and Hilton C. Oswald. Edited by Robin A. Leaver. St. Louis, 1984.

Wittmann, Reinhard. Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels: Ein Überblick. Munich, 1991.

Tanya Kevorkian