Sometimes it’s all in the details, and this is so true of Art Nouveau Leipzig. The Saxon city might not have the famous Art Nouveau buildings of Brussels, Budapest, Barcelona or Vienna, but what it did have in the early 20th century was a lot of wealth. Much of it was used to decorate new buildings around the booming city, including some of the most exquisite Art Nouveau (called Jugendstil locally) in Germany, indeed Europe.
In this article I’ll show you around some of the best Art Nouveau buildings in Leipzig, from fur traders’ offices to a high-end fashion store, and a wonderful Chinese-inspired Jugendstil café to the entrance and some pavilions in Leipzig Zoo.
It doesn’t take long to see these Art Nouveau sights in Leipzig – most of them can be seen on an hour-long walk around the historic centre, with a few of them concentrated around Nikolaistrasse. Only two are outside the city centre, and both are reachable on short tram rides.
Hopefully this will add an extra dimension to your Leipzig visit. I hope you enjoy it.
Leipzig Tours
Tours are a fantastic way to see and learn more about Leipzig. This could be on a guided walking tour of the city’s main sights, a hop-on-hop-off open-top bus tour, or even a self-drive Leipzig Trabant tour, the iconic cult East German car. You can look at – or book – each of them through the blue links in this paragraph.
Café Riquet
The Kaffeehaus Riquet is the most obvious Art Nouveau building in Leipzig, and I would say the most beautiful. I’d go so far as to say that it’s among the most beautiful cafes in Europe.
The Riquet coffee company had been trading in the Far East as far back as 1745, and this is reflected in some of the building’s decoration. Riquet also made chocolate, and their products were famously appreciated by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Two sculptures of elephants’ heads flank the main doorway, and the building is crowned with a Chinese-style turret.
Café Riquet was built in 1908 by Paul Lange, and it was one of the most elaborately decorated buildings in Leipzig. Two sculptures of elephants’ heads flank the main doorway, and the building is crowned with a Chinese-style turret. There’s also a beautiful mosaic around the window on the top (fourth) floor.
Steibs Hof
Steibs Hof – named after Leipzig architect Felix Steib – is one of the most beautiful Leipzig ‘passages’ or arcades which provide a series of shortcuts through the historic centre of the city. Steibs Hof links two of the busiest streets in the city centre, Nikolaistrasse and Brühl.
Steib intended the building – completed in 1907 – to be used as a trade fair palace. However, like numerous other buildings in the vicinity (see the following sections) was used by fur trading companies, and in subsequent years more and more tobacco companies rented offices in Steibs Hof.
The most prominent Art Nouveau feature is the entrance portal on Nikolaistrasse. The signage and windows are just the kind of features you’d find in an Art Nouveau coffee table book, while the surrounding carvings are elaborate, exuberant and Baroque in inspiration.
One section of the Steibs Hof leads to the N’Ostalgie Museum, a small private museum devoted to everyday life in Communist East Germany.
Ebert Department Store (now Commerzbank)
The former Kaufhaus Ebert was one of the earliest Leipzig Art Nouveau buildings, built between 1902 and 1904. It housed a high-end women’s clothing store, just across the street from the city’s famous Thomaskirche.
Store owner Franz Ebert commissioned August Hermann Schmidt and Arthur Johlige to design and build the Kaufhaus. It’s also one of the most ornate Art Nouveau buildings in Leipzig, with an abundance of decorative carvings painted gold.
The store remained open until the Second World War, after which it was used by IG Farben to dye clothing. It became a department store during the GDR period, before being taken over by Commerzbank after the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification in 1990.
Blauer Hecht Haus (Blue Pike House)
Nikolaistrasse, one of the main streets in the historic centre of Leipzig, was full of busy commercial offices by the early 20th century. The building at numbers 39-45, on the west side of the street, was built between 1911 and 1912 by Leopold Stenzler. It housed several company offices, including some involved in the fur trade.
The building is named after the Blue Pike relief carved above the doorway, and the lamps and carved animals on the façade are also from the Art Nouveau period.
Selters Haus
Next door to the Blue Pike House, at numbers 47-51 Nikolaistrasse, Alfred Selter built this four-storey office and store to house his own fur trading company. The building still bears his name over a century on – the Weinert was his son-in-law Carl, who became a partner in 1919.
The building was designed by Alfons Berger, and Georg Heinsius von Mayenburg and Ernst Hottenroth of Dresden focused on the decorative elements, including the carvings of animals with fur on the façade.
However, the show-stealer is the majolica frieze in the doorway, showing five figures, each wearing different fur accessories, including gloves, a scarf and a hat.
Zwei Reiter Haus
This building – also designed by Alfons Berger – was also used to house fur trading offices.
It is just across the street from the previous two buildings at Nikolaistrasse 36. The building was completed in 1908-09, and the main Art Nouveau features are decorative. The two sculptures – of young boys riding billy goats – are positioned above the entrance to the building, with the ‘Zwei Reiter’ (meaning ‘Two Riders’) sign in Art Nouveau-style lettering in the middle.
Specks Hof
Specks Hof is the oldest shopping arcade in Leipzig. It occupies the building across the street from Café Riquet on one side, and the Nikolaikirche (on Nikolaistrasse) on another.
The name refers to the arcade, a series of passages on the ground floor of the building, which is known as Hansa Haus.
The atmospheric arcades are beautiful, with barrel vaulted ceilings in patterns of shapes not dissimilar to some Cubist buildings in Prague.
Part of the building – which is six storeys tall – was completed as late as 1929, on the cusp of the Art Deco period across Europe and the world.
Trifugium
The Trifugium is the name given to a block of three adjacent buildings – Barfussgässchen 11, 13 and 15 – a short walk from Leipzig’s Markt square.
The three buildings – variously used as residences and for commercial purposes – all have Art Nouveau features, but there are noticeable differences between them.
The building I’ve photographed above is number 11, which has large curved windows typical of the Art Nouveau era, while the upper floors resemble a two-storey Renaissance loggia. Number 15 is very different, with a grand Neoclassical-style two-storey corner balcony. This building was once home to Café Silberstein, one of the few cafes that still served Jews after they were banned from most public life in 1938.
Battle of the Nations Monument
Perhaps the most famous of Leipzig landmarks, the Battle of the Nations Monument (Völkerschlachtdenkmal) was built to commemorate the Battle of Leipzig – also called the Battle of the Nations – in 1813. It was a major defeat for French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, whose army (supported by Polish, German and Italian forces) were beaten by combined Prussian, Austrian, Swedish and Russian forces.
The Völki (as it’s known to locals) is from late in the Art Nouveau period (it faded after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914). It’s an unusual mixture of architectural elements and based on the design of an ancient step pyramid.
The main Art Nouveau component in this is the statuary, both around the crown of the exterior of the Monument, and inside, including the sixteen warrior figures and the Hall of Fame.
While you’re there, it’s well worth climbing to the viewing gallery for a great view of the Leipzig city skyline two miles away.
Leipzig Zoo
Zoo Leipzig is one of the best in Europe, with an astonishing range of animals to see, including all four great apes (gorilla, chimpanzee, Bonobo and orangutan) living in one building, the phenomenal Pongoland. It’s one of a few zoos in Europe – Prague Zoo is one – where one day is nowhere near enough to see everything.
The Zoo is also worth visiting to see its superb Art Nouveau architecture. The entrance gateway is the first of an ensemble of four Art Nouveau buildings – and you see the others as soon as you step into the Zoo.
These are the Ernst-Pinkert-Haus to the immediate left of the gateway, the Aquarium and, to your right, the Koala-Haus.
You can book your Leipzig Zoo tickets here.
Other Leipzig Architecture
Leipzig has some outstanding architecture from the Middle Ages to the modern era.
It’s particularly worth looking out for the Gothic architecture of the Thomaskirche, the church where Johann Sebastian Bach was Kantor (Choirmaster) for the final 27 years of his life.
Just two minutes’ walk away, the Renaissance-era Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall) houses the excellent Leipzig City History Museum. Just behind it is the Alte Börse, the finest Baroque building in Leipzig.
A few minutes’ walk along Grimmaische Strasse, the city’s main shopping street, takes you to the corner of Nikolaistrasse. Turn left here and you’ll soon reach the Nikolaikirche Leipzig, with a Romanesque and Gothic exterior, but a completely remodelled Neoclassical interior. The nave, with its pink pillars, palm-frond capitals and pink vault with stucco floral patterns, is a huge surprise.
The 1989 Revolution that ousted the Communist regime in East Germany had its roots in prayer meetings at the church as far back as 1982. These grew in size in momentum over the summer of 1989, and the authorities could no longer contain them or control popular sentiment.
There are plenty of traces of the GDR regime just around the corner from the Nikolaikirche. Augustusplatz is a classic totalitarian square, and one of the best places to see Communist architecture in Europe. It’s home to a Socialist Realist Opera House, a Brutalist concert hall and a rare GDR-period skyscraper. The square is also the site of a medieval church (St Pauli) demolished by the authorities on the pretext that room was needed for new university buildings.
Where To Stay In Leipzig
***** – Steigenberger Icon Grandhotel Handelshof Leipzig – prestigious 5-star, luxury galore, and superb location right in the centre of historic Leipzig
**** – Vienna House Easy by Wyndham Leipzig – top 4-star chain, a few minutes’ walk from Hauptbahnhof and just around the corner from the Art Nouveau treasures of Nikolaistrasse
*** – Hotel Berlin – great 3-star option 10 minutes’ tram ride from the centre, and a short distance from the Battle of the Nations Monument
*** – Meininger Hotel Leipzig Hauptbahnhof – next door to the Vienna House Easy, ideal location for exploring the centre of Leipzig or taking a few day trips from the nearby Hauptbahnhof
** – Wombat’s City Hostel Leipzig – possibly the best budget option in Leipzig, with private rooms, apartments and dorms, close to the centre and Zoo Leipzig
Art Nouveau Leipzig – Final Thoughts
I hope you have enjoyed this guide – and if you visit Leipzig, that you get to see most of these Art Nouveau buildings around the city. Most of them are within easy walking distance of each other, and close to other Leipzig sights you’d see anyway, so it wouldn’t take you long.
For more articles on Leipzig that I haven’t listed during the article, check out the following guides:
One Day In Leipzig – 24 hours in the city of Bach and the Wende
Visiting the Bach Museum Leipzig -immerse yourself into the world of Johann Sebastian
Stasi Museum Leipzig – a glimpse behind the ‘sword and shield’ of ‘socialism’ in East Germany – the most complete surveillance network of a state’s own citizens ever
Day Trips From Leipzig – Naumburg, Weimar, Erfurt, Dresden and more
For more information on Art Nouveau architecture around Europe, take a look at the following articles:
11 Best Art Nouveau Cities In Europe – from Prague to Paris, Brussels to the Balkans and more
Art Nouveau Prague – the Municipal House concert halls, and stunning hotels and apartment buildings aplenty
Art Nouveau Budapest – folksy fantasies with gorgeous ceramic tiled rooftops galore
Art Nouveau Barcelona – the World Heritage-listed wonders of Antoni Gaudi, Lluis Domenech I Montaner and Josep Puig I Cadafalch
And finally, for more articles about Germany, check out some of these articles:
27 Best Places To Visit in Germany – from Hamburg to Heidelberg, Cologne to Quedlinburg and many more
17 Best Places To Visit In Eastern Germany – Dresden, Leipzig, the Baltic coast and much more
One Day In Dresden – a day in the rebuilt Florence on the Elbe
Things To Do In Quedlinburg – the stunning World Heritage town with over 2,000 medieval half-timbered houses
Visiting Nuremberg Toy Museum – one of the best toy museums in the world
Things To Do In Meissen – one of the most beautiful places to visit on the River Elbe
30 Best Places To Visit On The River Elbe – one of the great European rivers from source to sea
Visiting Naumburg Cathedral – World Heritage masterpiece, home to perhaps the most beautiful statue from the Middle Ages
One Day In Nuremberg – 24 Hours In The Imperial City
Bacharach Germany – one of the most enchanting villages in the Rhine Valley
21 Best Berlin Landmarks – the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall and many more
15 Best Berlin Cold War Sites To Visit – where to find remnants of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War
26 Best Things to Do In Trier – a detailed guide to the oldest city in Germany, including another great Toy Museum
20 Best Rhine River Castles – the best castles in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site
One Day In Hamburg – 24 hours in Germany’s great port city