Klett Kinderbuch Verlag is giving away class sets of the award-winning book *Manchmal male ich ein Haus für uns* by Alea Horst and Mehrdad Zaeri. Through this initiative, the Leipzig-based publisher aims to support teachers in engaging children in discussions about the experience of fleeing one’s home – and thereby countering prejudice and stereotyping. The […]
The whole country is facing enormous challenges and really ought to be investing heavily in climate and heat protection to make it sustainable for its people. Yet the very body that could shoulder this investment is being effectively sidelined by a fiscal policy at federal and state level that has gone completely off the rails: […]
To mark the international Bat Night weekend on 29 and 30 August, NABU Saxony is once again organising a series of events this year. Late summer is a particularly good time to spot bats. At dusk, they go hunting for insects and the young are already able to fly. During evening excursions and hands-on activities, […]
Everyone is talking about the feared election victory of the AfD. But hardly anyone is addressing the fact that this growing support for the populists may have very real causes. Namely, policies at federal and state level that completely ignore the interests of the public. This is now even evident in a survey by the […]
The demographic decline in Saxony is now also becoming apparent in the employment statistics. Whilst the number of full-time employees with German citizenship is beginning to dwindle – because the size of the incoming age cohorts has halved – the proportion of foreign employees is growing. And that is only the figure for full-time workers. […]
There is as yet no timetable for the transformation of Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz into a green oasis. However, the city intends to celebrate what is to come on Wednesday, 26 August. With a day of events on the square: between 2 pm and 6 pm, city departments and the institutions set to be based there in future […]
What opportunities do independent candidates and those put forward by smaller parties have to present their issues to the electorate during the election campaign? This question arises not only in the current mayoral election campaign in Leipzig. Here at the LZ, we’ve made it simple for ourselves. We are conducting interviews with all candidates across […]
Two people, 695 kilometres and a political question: what happens when people who feel powerless on their own realise that, together, there are quite a lot of them? Since 28 July, Oliver Möller and Simon Kieke have been walking from Trier to Berlin with the citizens’ movement Unfuck Germany. They have been travelling on foot […]
A question raised in the city council has consequences. At the last city council meeting in July, the BSW group wanted to know, amongst other things: “What is the current extent of municipal compensation areas within Leipzig’s urban area and outside the city limits?” It is actually an obvious question, because whenever valuable green space […]
Number 12 on the list of candidates so far for the office of mayor of Leipzig is finally a woman once again, bringing the proportion of women among the candidates to 1/6, or around 16.7 per cent. On 22 August, Anne Giulia Giermann was confirmed as a candidate for the mayoral election at the nomination […]
The city’s proposal to clear the Capa-Wäldchen as a compromise to meet the land requirements of the Kleinmesse and RB Leipzig has met with strong opposition and a lack of understanding amongst the people of Leipzig. The Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen group on the Leipzig City Council also firmly rejects these plans. It has […]
It is a never-ending saga that has now been occupying the city administration and the city council for a full twelve years. Back then, the Schauspiel Leipzig theatre wanted to get rid of its venue, the ‘Skala’, on Gottschedstraße. The city wanted to sell the building. And the Cinémathèque Leipzig spoke up, as it had […]
Everyone’s talking about the baby boomers, even blaming them for everything that’s gone wrong in Germany. And at the same time, fears are being stoked about the time when these large cohorts will retire. And what then? The Berlin Institute for Population and Development is also giving serious thought to the baby boomers and their […]
The proportion of women standing in the forthcoming election for the new mayor currently stands at 10 per cent of the candidates; this has not changed even following the announcement of The Greens candidate. With Wolfram Günther, not only is another political heavyweight entering the fray, but also another native of Leipzig. Although this is, […]
The thermometer in Leipzig read up to 42.5 degrees in the shade during that remarkable week at the end of June, when the heat even caused the grout between the tram tracks to melt, bringing tram services to a standstill for days. And such temperatures will become more common in Leipzig in future. That is […]
The municipal housing association LWB is planning around 10,900 rent increases for 2026 – an all-time high. This will affect more than a quarter of all LWB tenant households. In 2025, there were 5,362 rent adjustments, and in 2024 the figure had already risen to 9,523. Tenant communities in the south of Leipzig, where there […]
More fruit, nuts and vegetables, less meat and less sugar: this is precisely what all nutritionists recommend. It has little to do with what Germans currently eat on average. In recent years, central Germany has been missing out on more than a year’s worth of rainfall – that is, more than 600 mm. Germany is […]
In recent days, two ministers from the current government have failed to go down well with affected members of the public – who are having to learn to cope with the heat and drought – due to their flippant remarks about the weather. Due to insufficient rainfall and rising temperatures, the soil is drying out […]
Meanwhile, the fourth major heatwave of 2026 is sweeping across Germany and Europe, with temperatures exceeding 40 °C – levels never before recorded at local weather stations in the past 150 years. What is particularly worrying and critical is the increasing number of consecutive tropical nights with temperatures of over 20, 25 or even 30 […]
At the council meeting on 1 July, Dr Martina Münch, the councillor responsible for social affairs, made some clear statements: just one member of staff at the social services department is handling the cases of rent gouging reported to the city. There are hundreds of them. And even that is only a fraction of the […]
The City of Leipzig is once again planning to increase parental contributions for crèches, nurseries and after-school care. The city administration hopes this will generate additional revenue of around nine million euros over the next two financial years, 2027 and 2028. However, a majority on the city council had already rejected the increase during negotiations […]
For almost 30 years, Germany too has been pursuing financial voodoo economics, loosely based on the trickle-down theory, which – without any statistical basis whatsoever – claims that the economy will flourish if taxes on the rich are cut. And some of the prosperity generated in this way would then ‘trickle down’ to those below. […]
A roof truss fire in Connewitz kept the fire brigade busy for many hours on Tuesday; fighting the blaze proved to be a tough and difficult task. Considering what could have happened, the outcome was relatively mild: one woman required outpatient treatment for smoke inhalation. However, many residents have lost their homes – and two […]
It sounded as though Saxony’s government had finally got the message when the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported on 11 August: “It is getting increasingly hot in Saxony. Days with temperatures well above 30 degrees are on the rise, whilst at the same time water is becoming scarcer. Particularly in densely built-up towns and cities, […]
In August 2026, an Asian hornet was spotted in Leipzig-Grünau. This confirms that this invasive insect species has now reached Saxony. The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) was first recorded in Germany in 2014. It is thought that the species arrived in France from overseas as early as 2004 via transport routes and spread rapidly across […]
No one will be able to say in future that they didn’t know. That they lacked the facts about the 2026 elections. Because the facts are out there, live and available to anyone who’s even slightly curious about their own reality. And all presented with a touch of humour, too. Because that’s exactly what the […]
It will probably be years before anything happens at Matthäikirchhof. And a number of mistakes will still need to be rectified. Here, the city wanted to develop a vision for a new urban quarter through public participation – but with a whole host of preconditions that forced it into half-hearted compromises from the outset. However, […]
At a time when not only Germany but the whole of Europe is suffering from heat and water shortages – or rather, drought – it would be better if some ministers would simply keep their mouths shut. Light-hearted remarks may sometimes bring a smile to people’s faces, but they are often inappropriate. At the moment, […]
One question remained unanswered after the city announced on 29 July: “From the 2027 financial year onwards, the second-home tax is to be raised from the current 16 per cent to 20 per cent. The senior administration has now set in motion the corresponding amendment to the city’s statutes, which will be submitted to the […]
What happened at Leipzig/Halle Airport on the night of 4 to 5 August 2026 did not come out of the blue. For several years now, critical infrastructure in Germany has been the target of drone overflights. Dozens of such incidents are recorded every year by the security authorities in Saxony. And there has already been […]
The pension reform is casting its shadow – and by that we mean its downsides – and much of the criticism stems from the plan to abolish the ‘full pension for those with particularly long insurance records’, also known as the ‘pension at 63’. The East German CDU minister-presidents, trade unions and, in particular, the […]
It has been primarily the CDU parliamentary group that has repeatedly blocked efforts in recent times to adjust Leipzig’s parental contributions to reflect the rising costs in childcare centres. The city is now making a fresh attempt to secure a moderate adjustment to these contributions. This is because the city itself must cover the shortfall. […]
Working themselves to the bone? Reduced pensions for anyone who retires too early? This is now a concern even for the three CDU Minister-Presidents from Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Will they be able to see it through? It would be the first time that CDU Minister-Presidents have shown any backbone in the Federal Republic’s completely […]
At the end of July, Leipzig’s city administration submitted a proposal to the city council that is set to cause quite a stir. Not only for political groups that are not particularly keen on environmental protection, but also for departments and agencies for whom the city’s unspoilt natural environment is still a bargaining chip that […]
The current Merz government at federal level did, after all, get off to a start with a 500-billion-euro package that had been approved by the previous Bundestag. A huge sum of money with which the Federal Republic could have really fuelled investment across the country. But the money is being spread thinly over ten years, […]
The Merz government at federal level has proved a major disappointment, particularly for young voters. Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche, in particular, is systematically working to undermine the laws on the energy transition and to slow down the urgently needed restructuring of Germany’s energy supply. However, this summer’s extreme heatwaves are showing all citizens […]
Torgauer Platz is one of those locations in Leipzig’s road network that has been on the agenda for many years now, with plans to finally redevelop it. Yet this construction project, too, has been repeatedly postponed. Now, at long last, the project is set to go ahead in 2027. This also involves tram services on […]
Years of dithering over grid expansion are now having consequences in Saxony too: More and more applications for grid connections for renewable energy installations are being put on hold and piling up with the grid operators, as if Saxony were still in the year 2016 and could leisurely stroll into a climate-friendly future without fossil […]
On 24 July, Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) was publicly rebuked by the Federal Constitutional Court. “The Federal Constitutional Court has declared the Federal Ministry of the Interior’s blanket withdrawal from the resettlement programme for Afghan refugees to be arbitrary. ‘The revocation of visas that have been granted must be examined on […]
Whilst heatwaves in Europe, North America and South Asia are claiming the lives of tens of thousands of people, the largest oil and gas companies expect their profits to double between the first and second quarters of 2026. Calculations also show that their historical emissions have significantly fuelled the frequency and severity of heatwaves this […]
In early 2027, Leipzig will elect a new Lord Mayor – this time a genuinely new candidate, as the incumbent is no longer eligible to stand. The field of candidates is slowly taking shape, though with just one female candidate out of nine, the proportion of women is, unfortunately, very low. The Humanist Party (PdH) […]
Sometimes you just have to show people. Especially when Uncle Herbert, sitting at the family dinner table, once again lets his gut feeling take over, claiming that it used to be just as hot in the past and that the climate has always been changing anyway. But gut feeling has nothing to do with facts. […]
When you follow the discussions coming out of the Saxon countryside, you get the impression that most Saxons are against the energy transition and the expansion of renewable energy. And the Minister-President seems to be their mouthpiece when he raves about coal, natural gas and nuclear power. But this impression is misleading. It is the […]
How on earth did Friedrich Merz come up with the idea of appointing the current Secretary-General of the CDU – who is completely inexperienced in health policy – as Health Minister of all people? The answer is obvious: Merz doesn’t need a health policy expert; he wants a loyal enforcer of his austerity policy. Perhaps […]
The energy transition is working. And sensible governments would simply promote it wherever possible. Even in Saxony, where for years the mantra of the all-important ‘domestic lignite’ prevailed, the transformation of the energy landscape is having a positive impact. After all, the less lignite that is burnt to generate energy, the lower energy consumption will […]
In September 2026, Saxony-Anhalt will elect a new state parliament. The AfD stands a good chance of becoming the largest party there. But what would less Europe, less immigration and lower levels of public investment mean for the people? A brief study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) highlights a now well-known AfD […]
“Our position is clear: we will not simply accept the further expansion of the cargo airport and the associated additional burden on people and the environment. The legal action makes it possible to have the planned expansion plans reviewed by the courts. To ensure that this case does not fail due to the plaintiffs’ lack […]
A turnout of 20,000 people had been forecast for the closing rally and the main march of this year’s CSD in Leipzig; according to our estimates, this figure was indeed reached. Augustusplatz was already well filled at 11.00 am – that is, at the start of the event – and the crowd continued to grow. […]
The dispute over the small wood on Capastraße has also brought to the fore once again an issue that Leipzig’s environmental authorities are keen to play down. For in the Property Office’s proposal for the sale of the copse, it was once again boldly claimed that the loss of the copse could be offset elsewhere. […]
Will we find, from 2030 onwards, that Leipzig is no longer able to launch any major construction projects at all because there is simply no financial leeway left in the budget? That is the question on everyone’s lips. For the past three years, the budget has been spiralling completely out of control, completely overwhelmed by […]
Recently, there have been an increasing number of incidents in which people have been found lifeless in the water at Leipzig’s swimming lakes. The heat is not only driving Leipzig’s residents to the swimming spots in droves; it is also taking its toll on many a swimmer who overestimates their strength and underestimates the dangers […]
If you need an appointment at one of Leipzig’s citizen service centres, you often need to be prepared for a long wait and a great deal of patience. As a rule, you have to book the appointment online or arrange one by telephone via the citizen helpline. The latter applies mainly to older people and […]
“Due to the budget deficit and the prioritisation of ongoing measures over new ones, no additional investment measures for the implementation of the development plan for the Naturbad Nordost can be included in the 2025/2026 biennial budget.” This is what it sounds like when an administration informs the city council that measures for nature conservation […]
It will not be enough, even though the Saxon Ministry for Regional Affairs announced on 13 July: “From with immediate effect, 199.3 million euros is available in Saxony for new grants for the construction and modernisation of social housing. That is over seven million euros more than last year. This funding will enable around 740 […]
It is not just global warming that is causing problems for Germany. It is bringing into sharp relief just how devastated our native landscapes have long since become. They now offer hardly any protective functions against extreme weather events. A new ECONICS study highlights this in stark terms. Germany is losing the natural protective function […]
This concern was only too understandable, given that during the last elections Leipzig seemed to be literally drowning in a deluge of election posters. Many poles were covered from top to bottom. Some parties covered entire streets with their posters. And many posters were already lying torn to shreds on the grass after just a […]
Just a few years ago, the city council was still debating whether Leipzig should introduce a tourist accommodation tax or not. Now, everyone is pleased that the city can raise additional funds from it, which in turn benefit tourism. But who exactly? From the city’s point of view, the City Council’s Economic Committee has sufficient […]
Ultimately, it always comes down to acceptance. This is true of the energy transition too. All the more so when two districts of Leipzig – Hartmannsdorf and Knautnaundorf – are particularly affected within their local areas, as it is primarily here that Leipzig’s wind power capacity is being expanded. They then find themselves with significantly […]
It was to be expected that there would be a commotion over this agenda item at the council meeting on 2 July. Die-hard patriarchs simply cannot help but shout out and vociferously express their old-fashioned displeasure. They have internalised patriarchy. And so it did indeed get noisy in the city council when the motion ‘Proposal […]
A special milestone for the Leipzig Volunteer Pass: in June 2026, the 6,000th Leipzig Volunteer Pass was awarded. The anniversary pass was presented to Luise Popp, who has been volunteering as a coach at Roter Stern Leipzig for many years. The award recognises her long-standing commitment to girls’ football and voluntary work in Leipzig. The […]
On 2 July, a question was also raised at the council meeting regarding the call that the Left Party group has been persistently raising since August 2025. And, in fact, Torsten Bonew, the councillor responsible for finance, had intended to provide a comprehensive answer to this question this July. However, since his department has been […]
At the council meeting on 2 July, there was a minor first. Until now, when it came to questions from the city council, it had generally been the political groups themselves who were given the floor and were able to use the time to put further oral questions to the relevant mayors regarding their original […]
On 1 January 2026, the dog licence regulations for Leipzig – which had been adopted in December – came into force. They had been the subject of heated debate, partly because the city had a keen interest in microchipping as many dogs registered in Leipzig as possible, so that tax collection could be carried out […]
Will the “Kino der Jugend” on Eisenbahnstraße now falter at the final hurdle due to German bureaucracy and a Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) who insists on sticking to deadlines, after a solution to the Gordian knot had seemed to be in sight this spring? For it was then that the […]
Point 32 in the reform package put forward by the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition is likely to herald the end of the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) in its current form. Once again, people’s access to information about government and administrative actions is set to be made more difficult. This will also have implications for […]
The debate over a ship railway between Lake Cospuden and Lake Zwenkau has taken a new turn: Whilst the Grüner Ring Leipzig is pressing ahead with the project – costing around 93 million euros – as a potential building block for the development of tourism in the Leipzig Neuseenland, all the major nature conservation organisations […]
The Left Party had got off to such an enthusiastic start with its ‘rent profiteering’ app. Over 6,000 suspected cases of completely exorbitant rents have already been recorded in Leipzig using the app. It would then, in theory, be straightforward to report these cases to the city council, which would establish the breach of tenancy […]
The coalition’s reform package, presented with great fanfare, comprises a total of 34 points; one point in particular is the subject of much debate, and we have already written about it. In addition to the abolition of sick notes issued by telephone and the obligation to take sick leave from the first day of illness, […]
On 1 July, the City Council did not manage to get through all the items on the agenda. There were still some important items left, which then had to be carried over to the continuation of the meeting on 2 July. And once again, the discussion centred on the city’s financial difficulties – for which […]
How long will this heatwave actually remain in the memories of the people of Leipzig? On 1 July, it was still cool. Even the Leipzig City Council was delighted that the first LVB trams were running again at all, after the local transport company had been forced to suspend all services over the weekend of […]
At the council meeting on 1 July, zoo director Dr Jörg Junhold was also sitting on pins and needles amongst the audience. The issue at stake was whether he would be able to complete his life’s work – the ‘Zoo of the Future’ – by 2028 at the latest, when Leipzig Zoo celebrates its 150th […]
Ever since Friedrich Merz appeared on camera on 2 July and announced: “We are abolishing sick notes issued over the phone and introducing the requirement to submit a certificate of incapacity for work from the first day of illness”, there have been many conflicting signals. There is talk of “sensible solutions” from Klingbeil and of […]
In fact, Leipzig City Council had already sent a clear signal back in March against the plans of Wolfram Weimer, Germany’s State Secretary for Culture, to simply scrap the fifth extension to the German National Library in Leipzig. Even though it is urgently needed to house the books of the next 30 years. Weimer’s announcement […]
Pupils from the Leibniz-Gymnasium on Nordplatz also took the opportunity on 1 July to attend the council meeting as guests. This was because the agenda for that day included an item that was of great interest to them: when would it finally be their school’s turn for refurbishment? The Left Party had tabled a question […]
Is it all over? Or can the state government’s decision still be overturned – so that, instead of replacing the Agra Bridge on the B2 with a new structure in the 100-year-old park, a tunnel or underpass is built? This was the subject of a BSW motion at the council meeting on 1 July. A […]
One is allowed to dream, after all. Even city councillors are allowed to dream – of a beautiful, peacefully situated villa in Machern, where one can not only sleep soundly but also hold party group retreats in a seclusion from city life that is otherwise hard to find in Leipzig. And so it came as […]
Who, in fact, has manoeuvred the city into such a quandary that there is suddenly a heated public debate not only about whether the small wood that has grown up on Capastraße over the last 30 years may be cleared to provide RB Leipzig with new training grounds? It is a question that remains entirely […]
It was not only Left Party city councillor Susanne Scheidereiter who was deeply disappointed when, at the council meeting on 1 July, the latest motion to reduce the city’s impervious surface area was rejected by the council majority. The Greens’ parliamentary group, too, had repeatedly failed with its motions in recent years, even though the […]
Leipzig’s street trees, particularly those planted in recent years, are suffering from the drought; the heatwave of the last few weeks in particular has taken its toll on them once again. The ‘Leipzig gießt’ initiative has been running since 2020, with the aim of saving the street trees. The “Leipzig gießt” app has been available […]
There is a certain irony in the fact that two city councillors – one from the BSW and one from the AfD – have jointly tabled a motion with the misleading title ‘Pilot project: Voluntary driving licence exchange’. The title is misleading because, as you know, old driving licences – the grey and pink ones, […]
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