// Leipzig, 12.May.2010 -  Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing

Beautiful Leipzig! New Architectural Guide Leads Leipzig Citizens and Tourists to the Show-Pieces of History and Art Nouveau

Leipzig has today a collection of adjacent building from the years 1871 and 1918 as seen in no other town in Germany. This is reason enough for the Culture Foundation Leipzig as well as the Passage Publishing House and Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH, to publish the Architectural Guide „Historismus und Jugendstil – Leipziger Architektur 1871–1918“ (History and Art Nouveau - Leipzig Architecture 1871-1918). Today Dr. Wolfgang Hocquél, Director of the Culture Foundation Leipzig, Martin zur Nedden, Mayor for urban development and building and member of the Culture Foundation Council, Volker Bremer, Managing Director of Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH, and Thomas Liebscher, Proprietor of the Passage Publishing House, as joint publishers of the town guide present it fresh from the press.

For the first time ever a town guide presents the most beautiful buildings and memorials of the era coherently. A total of 82 houses and building complexes have been included. This is, however, only a small part of the existing Leipzig period houses: Of the 15,000 cultural monuments in Leipzig, 10,000 are from the so-called Wilhelminian period alone. Particularly impressive are the passages and exhibition palaces in the city centre such as Specks Hof, the Municipal Department Store or the oldest intact passageway in Germany, the Mädlerpassage. At least equally worth seeing are the dwellings in the historism style which shape large urban tracts, the industrial buildings in Plagwitz and die Publishing House to the east of the city centre.

The architectural town guide can be bought in various bookshops in Leipzig, for example in the Bachmann bookshop and the Connewitzer publishers' bookshop as well at the Leipzig Information Office (Richard-Wagner-Straße 1). Otherwise you can order it quoting the ISBN: 978-3-938543-79-5.

Statements of the Podium Speakers:

Martin zur Nedden, Mayor for urban development and building and member of the Culture Foundation Council:

„The remarkable thing is that the architectural guide deals not only with the city centre, but also highlights the important variations of historism and art nouveau in other parts of town. It invites the Leipzig citizens and tourists to visit places off the beaten track. This is worth while because the districts have various characters which reflect all aspects of life in the Wilhelminian Period: from bourgeois living quarters around the Waldstrasse via the workers' dwellings in the East to the industrial architecture in Plagwitz.“

Dr. Wolfgang Hocquél, Director of the Culture Foundation Leipzig:

„I am aware of architectural guides of many towns of various eras and believe: This is one of the best! The photos are big enough, the haptic is very pleasant, the texts are short and pertinent - the quality is right for Leipzig. After all our city is the German capital of historism, one could say an open air museum of the Wilhelminian period. In almost all our city locations you will find the charm of the era with these wonderful stairways, the decorative paintings, the consistency and opulence of the materials and much more.“

Volker Bremer, Managing Director of Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH:

„For a long time we have had the intention of publishing a city map in premium quality. We have given the impulse to our partners and this has fallen upon open ears. This guide offers a wonderful impression of the architecture of the Wilhelminian period in Leipzig which is a unique feature in this concentration and quality which we must use for promotion. As Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH we will actively support the product by marketing, selling it in the Tourist Information Office, utilising it in press travel and much more.“

Thomas Liebscher, Proprietor of the Passage Publishing House:

„We have printed an initial batch of 2,500 of the Architectural City Guide. The reaction to our offer in the bookshops was very good. Already 20 bookshops in Leipzig have ordered the city map and I expect further interest in the next few days.“