Lake Cospuden: Greens Urge Leipzig’s Mayor to Press State Government for Changes to Water Law 

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Perhaps Leipzig City Council needs a new form of “Mayor’s Report”. For years, the council has repeatedly instructed Mayor Burkhard Jung to approach the federal government or the Saxon state government with a clear mandate: challenge regulations that work to Leipzig’s disadvantage and push for change. What the public almost never hears is what, if anything, those efforts achieve. Yet such outcomes clearly belong in the public sphere – even when ministries in Dresden refuse to budge. 

The latest issue is Lake Cospuden and the question of whether it should be opened to motorized navigation. Has the mayor made headway on the issue? And if not, why not? 

In many cases, the answer may be as blunt as it is unsatisfying: nothing has come of it; the officials in the ministry remain unmoved. That was already the case with the Saxon Water Act of 2013, when the then-governing CDU and FDP enshrined the “navigability” of Saxony’s former open-cast mining lakes in law. Critics have long argued that the provision makes little sense. Navigability traditionally serves commercial shipping on major rivers; on artificial lakes, it effectively means opening the door to motorboats. 

At Lake Cospuden, neither the neighboring city of Markkleeberg nor Leipzig – which owns the northern shoreline – wants that outcome. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Greens on Leipzig’s City Council are now asking what the mayor’s talks with the Saxon state government have actually delivered. 

Unsuccessful Talks? 

“As early as 2023, we submitted motion VII-A-09241-NF-03 calling on the mayor to advocate a revision of the Saxon Shipping Ordinance in order to preserve restrictions on certain types of watercraft on Lake Cospuden,” the Greens write in a new motion. The council ultimately adopted the proposal in June 2024, in a revised form introduced by the SPD, reaffirming its opposition to motorboats on the lake and instructing the city to take “all possible and necessary steps.” 

Those steps, the Greens argue, have not borne fruit. In December 2025, the Saxon State Directorate announced a general administrative order formally declaring Lake Cospuden “completed” and opening its northern section to navigation. 

Public opposition has been substantial. More than 10,000 people have signed a petition organized by the environmental group Ökolöwe Leipzig against motorboats on the lake. Ökolöwe has filed an objection to the general administrative order, temporarily suspending its effect. Even so, the Greens caution that meaningful limits on motorboat traffic are unlikely to be achieved through procedural challenges alone. In their view, only a change to the underlying legal framework will offer lasting protection. 

A Question of Conservation – and of Character 

The Greens now argue that the council’s 2024 resolution was too general. Their renewed motion is more explicit: “We call on the mayor to advocate for a change in the shipping regulations at the state level in order to protect nature and species in the southern part of the lake and to preserve the character of the recreational area for many Leipzig residents.” 

The environmental stakes are high. Roughly half of the lake lies within the Leipziger Auwald landscape conservation area, while part of it is encompassed by a designated bird sanctuary. For many species, the area ranks among Saxony’s most important sites for resting, feeding, and breeding. Motor noise and pollution, the Greens warn, risk unraveling years of conservation efforts, disturbing protected species and driving them away. 

“The impending engine noise and pollution threaten to undo all these achievements and disturb and drive away important protected species. Since adjustments to the existing landscape conservation area can only be made via the district of Leipzig, the mayor is called upon to take appropriate action to ensure the necessary species protection by restricting motorboat traffic.” 

The Greens’ demands are twofold: that the mayor lobby the Free State of Saxony to revise the shipping ordinance so that restrictions on certain watercraft, as they existed before the lake’s formal completion, remain possible; and that he work with the district to expand the Leipziger Auwald conservation area on Leipzig territory, extending it to the southern city limits near Lake Zwenkau. 

What many in Leipzig now want is clarity. A report to the City Council, the Greens suggest, would help explain who is blocking change, on what grounds, and at whose expense. Environmental groups in the city, many of which are already watching the State Directorate’s handling of the issue with growing skepticism, would certainly welcome such transparency.