Plagwitz in Leipzig, Germany. Photo courtesy of fluffisch via Flickr.
It’s a funny place, Leipzig. At first glance, this Saxon city appears to have recovered well since Germany’s reunification in 1989. Arrive at its enormous railway station and nose around the restored city center, with its covered arcades, fine churches and plentiful reminders of longtime resident Johann Sebastian Bach, and you’d be forgiven for thinking everything was wunderbar.
However, once you breach the ring road encircling the old town, a different picture emerges. There’s an eerie lack of street life and numerous buildings, including stately 19th century villas, are boarded up. As with many cities in the old East Germany, the end of the state-run economy caused a decline in industry and subsequent population drop in Leipzig.
But head on to the district of Plagwitz in the city’s west to see an inspiring example of how abandoned industrial sites are being taken over by modern creative minds, and at the same time experience a sense of community life missing from other parts of the city.
In the Spinnerei, performers, visual artists, writers and other creative practitioners use a space which was originally established as a cotton mill 125 years ago. Many of them are attracted to the area by a cost of living which is even lower than in Berlin (which is to say, very low indeed) and exhibition spaces give you an insight into why Leipzig is considered one of the most vibrant contemporary art centers in Europe.
Another nearby factory has been transformed into the artist colony Westwerk. Not that restoration necessarily means sanitization: it’s still rough around the edges, typical of the multi-speed regeneration happening here. While private investment has repurposed some industrial sites into luxury apartments, elsewhere whole blocks still lie idle and decaying. But altogether Plagwitz is an exciting place to experience post-industrial, post-reunification life in the old East.
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