The origins of the veterinary clinics date back to 1780. In 1923, it was incorporated into the University of Leipzig where a separate campus was built for the new Faculty for Veterinary Medicine. Today, it is one of five veterinary training centers in Germany. Research focuses on emerging animal diseases and zoonoses in Europe, and their potential impact on agriculture, ecosystems and human health. The faculty is involved in knowledge transfer at the children’s project day “VetDay”, participation in the Children’s University and the studium universale, as well as the long night of Sciences.

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 Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (DI) conducts multidisciplinary and historically comprehensive research on Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages to the present. Its research adopts a pan-European perspective and includes the spaces of Jewish emigration, particularly Israel, as well as North and Latin America. Through events, university teaching, and a wide range of publications, the research findings are communicated to both academic audiences and the interested public. A stated goal is to conduct high-level humanities research and to enhance societal differentiation and critical thinking through the transfer of knowledge by conveying scientific insights.

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 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI EVA) was founded in 1997. Researchers from over 30 countries and different disciplines work in seven departments. Their common goal is to explore the history of humanity from an interdisciplinary perspective. This involves comparative analyses of the genes, cultures, cognitive abilities and social systems of past and present human populations, as well as those of closely related primate groups. Of particular note is the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to the Institute’s founding director, Svante Pääbo, for his discoveries of the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.

The Alma Mater Lipsiensis was founded in 1409 by an initiative of scholars who emigrated from the University of Prague, and in 1519 the Leipzig Disputations at the university were the beginning of the schisma between Rome and the Lutherans. During the reformation the university received donations that turned it into one of the riches universities in the Holy Roman Empire. Numerous scholars of world fame have tought and studied here, and time and again important impulses for the development of science emerged in Leipzig. Moreover, due to its role as leading university of the kingdom (and later state) of Saxony it contributed markedly to the development of the wider region. A corner stone of these endeavors has always been its Motto Surpassing Borders by Tradition.

Leipzig is hosting a considerable number of museums with a focus on reserach and teaching. Particularly important are the Grassi Museum for Ethnology and the German Museum of Books and Writing. Moreover, the university is running four important museums, and the city of Leipzig is operating the Leipzig Natural History Museum and the School Museum.

Leipzig University was inaugurated on 2 December 1409, and in 1512 the Nikolai School accepted its first students. Since this time academic institutions play an important role in the Leipzig’s civil society. Presently, there are five universities with a tradition of more than a century.

The Max Planck Society (MPG) was founded in 1948 to keep up the tradition of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. Many outstanding reserachers worked and still work at this most renowned German research organization, as exemplified by the large number of nobel laureates in its rows. After the reunification in 1989 the society started to found new institutes in several locations in Eastern Germany. Three of them are located in Leipzig.

Physical research in Leipzig dates back to 1557 when a professorship for physics was established. In the 18th century, even Saxon princes traveled from Dresden to witness impressive demonstrations of electrical charges and discharges. In 1835, the University of Leipzig (UL) established “one of the first, if not the first, state physics institutes in Germany” (according to Otto Wiener). In 1905, the largest physics institute building in Germany at the time was inaugurated on Linnéstraße. In the 1920s, the institute was led by Peter Debye (Nobel Prize 1936), Werner Heisenberg (Nobel Prize 1933), and Friedrich Hund. The fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and its applications in solid-state physics, nuclear physics, and chemistry were largely developed in Leipzig. After World War II, Gustav Hertz (Nobel Prize 1925) rebuilt the building and the research operations.

The German National Library is the central archive library for all media works in German from Germany and abroad. The building complex also houses the German Music Archive and the German Museum for Books and Writing. Hence, the German National Library is a library, and archive, a museum, and a forum of public exchange. The German National Library is a place of freedom of information and expression, which aims to inspire and at the same time encourage critical thinking with a comprehensive program of events and hands-on activities.

The Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) focuses its research on the region between the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Adriatic. From Late Antiquity to the present, it examines the characteristics, transformations, and interrelationships of this region within an increasingly globalized world. At the GWZO, experts from various humanities disciplines and scholarly traditions collaborate. The institute shares its research findings with specialists and the public through academic and non-academic books, exhibitions, events, and digital knowledge resources. In this way, past and present developments in Eastern Europe are made more comprehensible.

The Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) is an internationally renowned institute for research into the fundamentals of human cognition. The main focus of the research is on fundamental mechanisms of human thinking and the neural foundations of higher brain functions such as language, memory, orientation, music and communication. Furthermore, the plastic change capacity of the brain and its influence on various cognitive abilities are examined, as well as the neuronal and hormonal basis of diseases of civilization such as high blood pressure and obesity.

The university collections are used to document and preserve the physical objects of research. They support the teaching by providing a tactile context for historical or abstract concepts, and by communicating overarching concepts in hands-on narratives. Regularly they are open for public audiences in guided tours and public events.

As Leipzig’s first municipal school, the Old Nikolai School on Nikolai churchyard is one of the city’s most valuable cultural monuments. It first opened its doors in 1512. Famous Nikolaitans included Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Johann Gottfried Seume, Richard Wagner and Karl Liebknecht. Today it houses a permanent exhibition on Richard Wagner and the Leipzig University Museum of Antiquities.

Leipzig University established the first research institutes for many scientific disciplines. Thus, in 1846 the city became the seat of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences, and presently three Max Planck Institutes, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, and a large number of Leibniz-Institutes contribute to its role as an established center of international research.

In 1710, the University of Leipzig appointed its first “Professor of Chemistry.” Approximately a century later, the university inaugurated its first chemical laboratory. By the next century, Leipzig had firmly established itself as a distinguished center of research and education, recognized globally for its academic excellence. Wilhelm Ostwald received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his research at Leipzig, and four alumni from the university — August Arrhenius (1903), Walther Hermann Nernst (1920), as well as Friedrich Bergius and Carl Bosch (1931) — were also awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Leipzig’s research diversity is reflected in its four Leibniz Institutes. The Leibniz Association, named after the philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), a native of Leipzig, is one of Germany’s four non-university research organizations. It connects 96 independent institutes focusing on fields such as natural sciences, engineering, economics, and the humanities. Addressing socially, economically, and ecologically relevant topics, the Leibniz Institutes are jointly funded by federal and state governments due to their national significance.

The origin of the Leipzig City Council Library and later the Leipzig City Library begun from donations of 42 books from the estate of Dietrich von Bocksdorf (deceased 1466) and 253 books from town clerk and syndic Peter Freitag. By the end of the 19th century, the collection had grown to over 100,000 books, and the music department of the city library was established. By its 250th anniversary in 1927, the library had 155,000 volumes, including 660 early printed works (incunabula), and 1,702 manuscripts. Since 1991, the City Library has been housed in the old Grassi Museum at Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz. In addition to providing an extensive media offering and free access to information, the Leipzig City Library enriches the cultural life of Leipzig with events for all age groups and serves as a place of encounter and joint learning.

The Botanical Garden at Leipzig University is the oldest of its kind in Germany and can even be considered one of the oldest gardens in Europe along with Pisa, Padua and Florence. In its more than 450-year history, it has been relocated four times within the city limits of Leipzig. Since 1876 it resides at its current location in Linnéstraße. Today, the Botanical Garden, as a garden of diversity, is not only used for teaching and research, but also as a meeting place for the transfer of knowledge between the university and society.

The Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI MiS) is an internationally oriented research institute for mathematics whose research focus is particularly on the interaction between mathematics and other sciences. The institute’s name is understood as a philosophical and cultural mission: to view mathematics not merely as a modern and powerful tool for scientific applications, but also as a means to address fundamental questions in the sciences through its unique approach, thereby enriching mathematics itself. In addition to its academic mission, the institute is particularly committed to supporting early-career researchers, fostering both doctoral candidates and young scientists in their initial postdoctoral steps. A distinctive feature of the institute is its highly international guest program, which promotes global collaboration and exchange.

The German National Library is the central archive library for all media works in German from Germany and abroad. The building complex also houses the German Music Archive and the German Museum for Books and Writing. Hence, the German National Library is a library, and archive, a museum, and a forum of public exchange. The German National Library is a place of freedom of information and expression, which aims to inspire and at the same time encourage critical thinking with a comprehensive program of events and hands-on activities.

The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) is the only non-university research institute for geography in Germany. The institute’s origins date back to 1896, when the Leipzig Museum of Ethnology displayed the collection of geologist Alphons Stübel, which became an independent Museum of Regional Geography in 1907. The institution flourished, and by the 1930s, the museum had also become a research institute. From 1950 onward, the institute evolved into the central geographic research institute of the GDR. In 1976, it was integrated into the Academy of Sciences of the GDR as the Institute for Geography and Geoecology (IGG). After German reunification, it was re-established as the Institute for Regional Geography. Since 1996, it has been located at its current site in Leipzig-Paunsdorf.

Leipzig is a city of libraries and archives. The city archive preserves deeds and documents of the city of Leipzig since the 12th century, and the university archive operates since the early 15th century. The university libraby and the city library were founded in the 16th century with important donations from the Leipzig monastic libraries. In 1912 the German National Library was founded in Leipzig. As a contribution to preserve and document the German cultural heritage it is collecting and documenting all publications in German or about Germany.

The Leipziger WissensSpur passes along world-renowned libraries, exciting museums, Max Planck and Leibniz institutes, as well as four universities with a long tradition and excellent research.

The medical history collections at theKarl Sudhoff Institute go back to the fundamental Leipzig research work of Karl Sudhoff (1853 – 1938). Since then, the collection has been continuously expanded through purchases, donations and bequests. Most of the objects date from the last decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. A small part even dates back to the 16th century. Selected objects and special exhibitions can now be seen in new premises on the campus of the University Medical Center.

The Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) pursues a clear and globally unique research profile, focusing on aerosols, which are tiny airborne particles, and clouds. Although they exist in minimal quantities, aerosols are vital components of the atmosphere, as they play a key role in regulating the Earth’s energy, water, and trace substance balance. Human activities can alter the properties of these highly dispersed systems, directly and indirectly affecting humans. This can happen both through the health impacts of inhaled particles and droplets, as well as through regional and global climate changes.

The Leipzig City Archive is one of the largest communal archives in Germany. It offers comprehensive research services to its visitors, and invites them to “dive into the memory of the City”. Predominantly it preserves information about the communal administration and material to track the evolution of the city. They are bunded into 500 collections that comprise records of various kinds. Presently it is storing more than 4,000 certificates, 12,500 shelf meters of documents, books of accounting, news papers, and pamphlets, 90,000 maps and plans, 350,000 photos and post cards, as well as collections on the history of Leipzig since the founding of the city in 1165 till its recent past.

The Leipzig Institute of Meteorology (LIM) has a tradition of over 100 years in meteorological and climatological research. Today, it is a recognized international center for meteorological research and teaching in the field of meteorology and climatology. The institute is an integral part of Leipzig University’s Children’s University and has its own blog for children (Mia’s Climate Diary). It is also an important part of the Long Night of Sciences and provides an overview of the currently measured weather from the measuring meadow in front of the institute and the institute tower on the website and on a screen in the building.

The Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig (English: Forum of Contemporary History) is a venue of political-historic education, and one of four museums of the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Foundation. The permanent exhibition Our History. Dictatorship and Democracy after 1945 takes visitors on a journey through history – from the years after the Second World War to life in former East Germany and today’s Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore the forum presents special exhibitions on topics of relevance to the German civil society, and it offers a thriving cultural program with film exhibitions, talks, round-table discussions, and conferences.

Leipzig University is organized in 14 faculties with more than 100 institutes. The research topics cover a broad spectrum of disciplines in life sciences, social sciences and humanities, and the natural sciences — with particular strength in the fields of global interactions, (bio-)materials, intelligent materials, biotechnology, mathematical sciences, and biodiversity.

Numerous university professors set up collections to support their teaching, and in the 19th centrury a number of Leipzig buisinessmen (and their wifes) established famous private collections. From these roots emerged a considerable number of important scientific museums and collections in Leipzig.

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 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) is a leading research center of biodiversity sciences with a research focus on insights into the biological diversity of Earth. Researches from all over the world cooperate in building the scientific foundation of a sustainable development of the biological diversity. Moreover, the conter reaches out to the civil society – for instance in its internationally oriented media relations or in events like the Long Night of Sciences, the Leipzig Book Fair or SPIN 2030.

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.

Leipzig University is the second oldest university in Germany, and the Leipzig University Archives are responsible for the preservation of the University of Leipzig since its foundation in 1409. The staff of the University Archives support students, academics, users, family researchers, doctoral candidates, interested Leipzig citizens and alumni of Leipzig University with on-site research, extensive databases, information on university history and archiving, as well as research opportunities on the Internet. Guided tours and a blog with information on anniversaries, media contributions and numerous (virtual) exhibitions also serve the transfer of knowledge.

The INSPIRATA is a non-profit association that has set itself the task of supporting mathematical and scientific education. This objective is realized in the format of a hands-on museum, where children of all ages can engage in exciting experiments. The museum also offers group tours and workshops for school classes, as well as other activities in the STEM subjects. In the permanent exhibition, which is always open on Saturdays for young and old, you too can rekindle your enthusiasm for the natural sciences.

The Else-Frenkel-Brunswik Institute (EFBI) at the University of Leipzig, founded in the fall of 2020, is named after the psychoanalyst Else Frenkel-Brunswik, whose research tradition the institute follows. The EFBI focuses on three key areas of research: attitude research, research in conflict areas, and the documentation of anti-democratic networks. Notable studies include the Berlin Monitor and the Leipzig Authoritarianism Studies. The results of the institute’s research are presented and discussed in numerous public events.

The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) was founded and developed in the context of German reunification as a “broadly based center for researching the ecology of industrialized urban regions.” Today, it stands as one of the world’s leading research centers in environmental science. More than 1,000 employees at the UFZ share the goal of identifying ways to reconcile a healthy environment with societal development through excellent research. Their work has played a key role in transforming the Leipzig area into a rich ecosystem with significant recreational value.

Thanks to the work of generations of geoscientists at the Institute and donations from important collectors and patrons, the Geological-Palaeontological Collection at Leipzig University has grown into one of the largest and most important fossil and rock collections in the German university landscape. Today, the teaching and research repository contains around 85,000 items, spread across 1780 collection drawers in 110 collection cabinets. The items in the collection bring the diverse geological past of Saxony and Central Germany to life. Since mid-May 2019, they can once again be admired in their historic rooms. Regular events and special exhibitions provide the general public with geoscientific and palaeontological knowledge about Saxony, Central Germany and the world.

The Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) was founded on July 15th, 1992 as a merger of the HTWK’s predecessor institutions in Leipzig- the Leipzig University of Technology, the Leipzig School of Librarians and Booksellers, the School of Librarianship, and the Institute of Museology. As one of Germany’s largest universities of applied sciences, the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences incorporates learning institutions that are especially typical for the city of Leipzig, such as librarians, book traders, and museologists, as well as for a wide range of engineering professions.

The Henriette Goldschmidt School was founded in 1911 by Henriette Goldschmidt at its current location in Leipzig. As a first university in Germany it gave women and girls the opportunity to acquire a scientifically based education, as well as the self-esteem and opportunity of financial independence based on a profound professional education — a privilege not widely available in that period. Presently, the school is a modern school centre for professional education of podologists, childcare and healthcare support workers, and a city college for health care and social professions.

In general, maps serve to impart knowledge, act as orientation aids in the terrain, are contemporary witnesses and often also works of art. They document current and historical conditions of topographical and thematic content of any kind. The Geoscientific Map Collection of the Institute of Geography is a teaching collection comprising over 33,000 inventoried maps, atlases, travel and specialist literature and explanatory notes. The majority of the objects (approx. 26,900) are recorded electronically, can be accessed internally in a database or are also available online. The premises of the collection can be visited by appointment or during the opening hours of the collection.

The Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ) explores how the limited resources of biomass can be used with maximal sustainability and efficiency to our energy systems. To this end the insitute identifies, develops, supports, evaluates, and demonstrates the most promising fields of application of bio-energy. Thus, its work extends our knowledge about the opportunities and limitations of the energetic and physical use of renewable raw materials, and it permanently secures the leading role of German industry in this sector.

Founded in 1873, the Institute of Art History is one of the few art historical institutes globally that was established in the 19th century. The research and teaching of the professors, lecturers, and numerous teaching assistants from the art history field cover the entire spectrum of the discipline, from the Middle Ages to the present. The institute maintains contact with the public in Leipzig through numerous and close collaborations with the art museums in the city center.

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.

In 1879, Leipzig University professor Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (1832 – 1920) founded the world’s first Institute of Psychology. Many scholars from around the world attended Wundt’s lectures, participated in his seminars, and took part in experimental research in his laboratory. He wrote numerous highly influential books and provided assessments for 184 doctoral theses. At least 60 of his doctoral students came from abroad, including 18 from the United States. Today, ten university professors work at the Institute of Psychology, and three honorary professors serve as directors at the Leipzig Max Planck Institutes for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and for Evolutionary Anthropology. Their research spans all major fundamental and applied areas of contemporary psychology.

The collection of the first Zoological Museum was opened in 1837 by the first Chair of Zoology, Eduard Friedrich Poeppig Eduard Friedrich Poeppig. From 1907, the taxidermist Hermanus Hendrikus ter Meer from Leiden made a decisive contribution with the dermoplastic technique: this made it possible to prepare vertebrates in a proportionate and therefore lifelike manner. In the 1960s a large part of the collection was transferred to other museums, in particular the Leipzig Natural History Museum.

The Leipzig Adult Education Center is the municipal continuing education center for all Leipzig residents. Founded in 1922, it offers over 4,000 course offerings every year with the help of around 750 freelance course instructors. Its tradition goes back to the Enlightenment and workers’ education movement. Today it stands for lifelong learning, a wide range of high-quality educational offerings, the combination of education, communication and experience, individual advice and competent service as well as socially acceptable remuneration. The adult education center offers educational opportunities for all-round and professional development, interesting leisure activities and opportunities to get to know other people, their ideas and experiences.*

Founded in 1873, the Institute for Art History It is one of the few art history institutes in the world that was founded in the 19th century. The research and teaching of the professors, private lecturers and numerous lecturers from the field of art history cover the entire spectrum of the subject from the Middle Ages to the present day. Contact with the public in Leipzig is ensured by numerous and close collaborations with the art museums in the city center.

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.