Faculty libraries have existed since the university was established. A centralized university library was founded in the mid-16th century, following the Reformation and the subsequent dissolution of monasteries. Selected book collections from monasteries in Albertine Saxony were transferred to this library, forming the initial foundation of the Bibliotheca Albertina. Over time, the collection grew through further acquisitions and donations. Today, the University Library Leipzig (ULB) holds one of Germany’s largest collections of historical materials. In the 19th century, the university library became the central hub for providing literature to the university community. Today, it also serves as a significant venue for exhibitions and events.

The Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig was founded on 1 July 1846. It follows the tradition of scientific academies set out by Leibnitz in 1700: facilitating regular meetings and exchange of scholars of a broad range of disciplines, discussing the methods and results of cutting-edge research in interdisciplinary disputes, pursuing long-term research, and combining theory and practice. To this end the academy organizes regular, topic-spanning disputes of renowned national and international scholars.

The University of Music and Theatre »Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy« Leipzig (Hochschule für Musik und Theater, or HMT) emerged in 1992 as the successor to Germany’s oldest Academies of Music (1943) and Theater (1953, with roots in the Leipzig Theatre School founded in 1875-1876). Approximately 175 years ago, the concept of creating a musical educational institution in order to be able to provide the best possible education for young talent was a revolutionary idea. Today, it is important to continue to live up to this core mission in the midst of a rapidly changing, globalization-oriented world, without forgetting its traditional roots.

The Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst/Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) is one of the oldest and most prestigious Colleges of Fine Arts in Europe. The Academy provides art and design education at the highest level since more than 250 years. Its excellent reputation is due to countless graduates who continually make a significant impact on the areas of fine art and graphic design, and many renowned professors and dedicated tutors working at the HGB. The college maintains a superb international network of more than 100 collaboration partners from various areas of the art and graphic design industry, as well as from the world of science and economics. Quality and sustainability of teaching and practice is what they stand for.

Since 2005 the German Institute for Literature Leipzig (DLL) resides in a bourgeois villa in the Wächterstraße 34. This central institution of Leipzig University is devoted to the education of prospective German writers. A key objective of its study program in the fostering and reflexion of individual literarary projects and writing. The bachelor program addresses on a broad range of oeuvres in prosa, lyrics and scenic writing. The focus of the masters program is on developing a project for a novel. Regularly, the institute can be visited for readings and other public events.

Lectures on political theory at the University of Leipzig have been documented since 1410, but today’s Institute of Political Science is a result and benefit of the period of German reunification. During this period, the relationship between politics and philosophy, history, jurisprudence and economics was repeatedly renegotiated. In the 19th century, for example, a strong connection to national economics was promoted. In the break with the academic systems of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, the founding of the institute in 1993 led to a reorientation of research and teaching under the thematic umbrella of “Democracy - Education - Europe”. The guiding principle here is the factual and problem-oriented analysis of political processes, structures and content in a non-discriminatory space.