CITY PROFILE - LEIPZIG

Over the centuries the name Leipzig came to stand for the site of Germ an and European trade fairs. After the middle of the 19th century the city also developed into a centre of industrial production. The spatia l expansion and economic development of the city were severely interru pted, however, by war damage, the partitioning of Germany at the end o f World War 2 and the post-World War 2 socialist era. The city was ful l of run down buildings. As was typical of a socialist economy, goods were in short supply, and the population lacked perspectives. Such was the situation prior to 1989. With the unification of Germany and the advent of a market economy in eastern Germany, Leipzig has the chance to reacquire its status as a European metropolis. It is striving to do so by reviving old commercial, cultural and scientific traditions, th ough at the cost of a post-socialist transformation of society that is painful for many.