Leipzig und Südosteuropa

Early trade relations of Leipzig have been evident since the 14th/15th century. In the centuries to follow until the end of the 20th century, the trade fair city of Leipzig formed an important reference point and emporium for exchanging goods between Southeastern Europe and Central and Western Europe. Since the 17th/18th century, Leipzig’s function as a book and university city came along with the traditional trade relations. The publication possibilities offered in Leipzig played an important part for the national and nation state movements of the Southeast European peoples in the 19th century. The University of Leipzig gained increasing importance at the end of the 19th century as a pioneer in the European research work on Southeast Europe, especially for the exploration of languages and cultures in the Balkans. The relations between Leipzig and Southeast Europe (Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria) were specifically intensified by the integration into the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Mutual Economic Cooperation (Comecon). The many years of Leipzig’s relations with the European Southeast form the background for the Southeast European research work, presently located in Leipzig and carried out at the University of Leipzig (languages, literature), at the Institut für Länderkunde (geography) and the Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas (humane disciplines).