Station 20 - South Cemetery
Due to the rapid development of the city during industrialization and the resulting and ever-increasing population, new cemetery grounds became necessary. The Leipzig North Cemetery was opened in 1881, the South Cemetery five years later by Mayor Carl Bruno Tröndlin on June 1st, 1886.
The Leipzig South Cemetery is the largest cemetery site in Leipzig with an area of approximately 80 hectares and has every right to be considered one of the largest and most beautiful park cemeteries in Germany. The site was planned to include a conduit of paths shaped like a lime leaf by city planner and important architect Hugo Licht (1841–1923), also known as builder of the New Townhall 1900–1905 and the Conservatory of Music in the years 1885–1887, in cooperation with the horticultural director Otto Wittenberg (1834–1918). Thus, the designers referred back to the Slavic original name of Leipzig “place near the limetrees” and created a Gesamtkunstwerk as a tribute to Art Nouveau.
Symbolic of the notable Leipzig people whose graves are in the South Cemetery are the St Thomas Cantors Gustav Schreck, Karl Straube, Günther Ramin* and Erhard Mauersberger, the Gewandhaus Music Directors Carl Reinecke, Arthur Nikisch* and Franz Konwitschny, the composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert* and Hugo Riemann*, music theorist and lexicographer. Also, the music publishers Max Abraham* and Henri Hinrichsen* as well as the creator of the Bach monument at St. Thomas’ churchyard, Carl Seffner*, have family tombs or memorials there.
* The short tour from the Notenrad station at the west gate leads to the exemplary grave and memorial stones of these people.
Friedhofsweg 3, 04299 Leipzig, Tel. 0341/ 1235700
open: April–September: 7–21:00 October–March: 8–18:00
Photo: Werner Schneider
Internet: Stadt Leipzig, Südfriedhof
South Cemetery