19 Best Sights in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, Germany

The city's leading art gallery is modernist minimalism incarnate, set in a huge concrete cube encased in green glass in the middle of Sachsenplatz Square. The museum's collection of more than 2,700 paintings and sculptures represents everything from the German Middle Ages to the modern Neue Leipziger Schule. Especially notable are the collections focusing on Lucas Cranach the Elder and Caspar David Friedrich. Be sure to start at the top and work your way down. Don't miss Max Klinger's Beethoven as Zeus statue.

The stained glass windows attest to the fact that Johan Sebastian Bach served as choirmaster at this Gothic church for 27 years, and Martin Luther preached here on Whitsunday 1539, signaling the arrival of Protestantism in Leipzig. Originally the center of a 13th-century monastery, the tall church (rebuilt in the 15th century) now stands by itself. Bach wrote most of his cantatas for the church's famous boys' choir, the Thomanerchor, which was founded in the 13th century. Today, the church continues to serve as the choir's home as well as a center of Bach tradition.

The great music Bach wrote during his Leipzig years commanded little attention in his lifetime, and when he died he was given a simple grave, without a headstone, in the city's Johannisfriedhof (St. John Cemetery). It wasn't until 1894 that an effort was made to find where the great composer lay buried, and after a thorough, macabre search, his coffin was removed to the Johanniskirche. That church was destroyed by Allied bombs in December 1943, and Bach subsequently found his final resting place in the church he would have selected: the Thomaskirche. You can listen to the famous boys' choir during the Motette, a service with a special emphasis on choral music.

Bach's 12 children and the infant Richard Wagner were baptized in the early-17th-century font; Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels also stood before this same font, godfathers to Karl Liebknecht, who grew up to be a revolutionary as well.

In front of the church is a memorial to Felix Mendelssohn, rebuilt with funds collected by the Leipzig Citizens Initiative. The Nazis destroyed the original in front of the Gewandhaus.

The Bach family home, the old Bosehaus, stands opposite the Thomaskirche, and is now a museum devoted to the composer's life and work. The exhibition offers several interactive displays; arranging the instrumental parts of Bach's hymns is by far the most entertaining.

Outside of the city center, in the district of Lindenau, Leipzig merchants built a huge cotton factory that spun from 1884 until 1993, when it closed. The 25-acre site lay abandoned until a group of artists purchased the property in 2001. Today the old factories are run by an eclectic collection of craftspeople and artists. In addition to galleries run by Neo Rauch and Matthias Weischer, the factory became the center of the New Leipzig School of contemporary art. Today the Cotton Mill is an enclave of potters, a goldsmith, fashion designers, restaurants, and theaters. Self-billed as the “Hottest Place on Earth,” it is worth the trek.

This museum showcases 2,000 years of works from Leipzig's and eastern Germany's proud tradition of handicrafts, such as exquisite porcelain, fine tapestry art, and modern Bauhaus design.

Historical musical instruments, mostly from the Renaissance, include the world's oldest clavichord, constructed in 1543 in Italy. There are also spinets, flutes, and lutes. Recordings of the instruments can be heard at the exhibits.

Presenting arts and crafts from all continents and various eras, this museum includes a thrilling collection of Southeast Asian antique art and the world's only Kurile Ainu feather costume, in the Northeast Asia collection. This museum stands at the forefront of a growing movement to assess Germany's colonial past and repatriation of looted art.

British "starchitect" David Chipperfield restored and modernized this fine example of German art deco in 2003–05. The building, which opened in 1929, houses three important museums.

With 26 platforms, Leipzig's main train station is Europe's largest railhead. It was built in 1915 and is now a protected monument, but modern commerce rules in its bi-level shopping mall, the Promenaden. The only thing the complex is missing is a pub. Many of the shops and restaurants stay open until 10 pm and are open on Sunday. Thanks to the historic backdrop, this is one of the most beautiful shopping experiences in Saxony.

The ghost of Goethe's Faust lurks in every marble corner of Leipzig's finest shopping arcade. One of the scenes in Faust is set in the famous Auerbachs Keller restaurant, at No. 2. A bronze group of characters from the play, sculpted in 1913, beckons you down the stone staircase to the restaurant. Touching the statues' feet is said to bring good luck. A few yards away is a delightful art nouveau bar called Mephisto.

Leipzig's showpiece is its huge, old market square. One side is completely occupied by the Renaissance town hall, the Altes Rathaus.  In the summer the square becomes Leipzig's living room, as concerts, markets, and cafés flow into the streets.

The only surviving residence of the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy is now Germany's only museum dedicated to him. Mendelssohn's last residence and the place of his death has been preserved in its original 19th-century state. Concerts are held every Sunday at 11.

This building once served as the headquarters of the city's detachment of the Communist secret police, the dreaded Ministerium für Staatssicherheit. The exhibition Stasi—Macht und Banalität (Stasi—Power and Banality) presents not only the Stasi's offices and surveillance work, but also hundreds of documents revealing the magnitude of its interests in citizens' private lives. Though the material is in German, the items and atmosphere convey an impression of what life under the regime might have been like. The exhibit about the death penalty in the GDR is particularly chilling. For a detailed tour of the Revolutions of 1989, be sure to download the museum's app.

Saxons drink coffee like it is a religion, and this museum and café-restaurant tells the fascinating history of coffee culture in Saxony and Europe. It is one of the oldest on the continent, and once proudly served coffee to such luminaries as Gotthold Lessing, Schumann, Goethe, and Liszt. The museum features many paintings, Arabian coffee vessels, and coffeehouse games. It also explains the basic principles of roasting coffee. The café is divided into traditional Viennese, French, and Arabian coffeehouses, but no coffee is served in the Arabian section, which is only a display. The cake is better and the seating more comfortable in the Viennese part. There is an ongoing discussion in Leipzig that this building, with its Turkish imagery, needs to be put into its post-colonial context.

This church, with its rough undistinguished facade, was center stage during the demonstrations that helped bring down the Communist regime. Every Monday for months before the government collapsed, thousands of citizens gathered in front of the church chanting "Wir sind das Volk" (We are the people). There is a lingering spiritual power inside, with a soaring Gothic choir and nave. Note the unusual patterned ceiling supported by classical pillars that end in palm-tree-like flourishes. Martin Luther is said to have preached from the ornate 16th-century pulpit. The prayers for peace that began the revolution in 1989 are still held on Monday at 5 pm.

Looming over Leipzig's city center, this 470-foot-high office building now houses an investment company. Dubbed the "jagged tooth" or "wisdom tooth" by some students of the University of Leipzig, the university's former administrative center was designed to resemble an open book. It was once the tallest building in Germany and is most popular these days for its viewing platform on the 31st floor, which offers the city's best views of the university campus on the Augustplatz. The restaurant at the top offers a good three-course business lunch.

Inside the Altes Rathaus, this museum documents Leipzig's past. The entrance is behind the Rathaus. The museum's extended collection continues behind the Museum for Applied Arts.

In the fall of 1813, Prussian, Austrian, Russian, and Swedish forces defeated Napoléon in the Battle of the Nations. This was the first in a series of losses that served as a prelude to the French general's defeat two years later at Waterloo. An enormous, 300-foot-high monument erected on the site in 1913 commemorates the battle. Despite its massiveness, the site is well worth a visit, if only to wonder at the lengths—and heights—to which a newfound sense of German nationalism, unencumbered with the baggage of the 20th century,  went to celebrate their military victories, and to take in the view from a windy platform (provided you can climb the 500 steps to get there). The Prussians did make one concession to Napoléon in designing the monument: a stone marks the spot where he stood during the three-day battle. An exhibition hall explains the history of the memorial, which can be reached via Streetcar 15 or 2 or by the S1 or S3 commuter train (leave the tram or the train at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal station).

This excellent history museum focuses on issues surrounding the division and unification of Germany after World War II.