Hello Leipzig: This is how Monday 9 November 2026 begins

In the city centre, an annoying but necessary construction project is coming to an end right on schedule. The way is clear at Augustusplatz – at least for the tram, for the time being. Elsewhere, the next phase of works is getting underway, which is due to be completed before winter. Monday is also dominated by commemorative events marking the pogroms that took place 88 years ago. And in naTo, there’s a look back at the turbulent years following the fall of the Wall.

End and beginning: the headache of the junctions

Four weeks of digging, tearing up, laying, milling and grouting. It’s done! From today, trams at Leipzig’s Augustusplatz are running on their regular routes again. Lines 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 16, as well as the night service N10, are returning to their previous routes. The temporary construction service 38 between Wahren and Paunsdorf-Nord has been discontinued.

Among other things, the track curves from Georgiring to Grimmaischer Steinweg have been renewed. Work has also taken place on Georgiring and on the west side of the main station. For motorists, lanes on Georgiring are expected to remain closed until 13 November. In the direction of the main station, only one lane is available in some sections.

At the same time, a new construction site is starting today at the junction of Zwickauer Straße and Richard-Lehmann-Straße. Leipzig Transport Authority (LVB) will be carrying out track maintenance there until 27 November. As a result, until 20 November inclusive, Line 16 between Bayerischer Bahnhof and Triftweg will run via Arthur-Hoffmann-Straße, Connewitzer Kreuz, Wiedebachplatz and Arno-Nitzsche-Straße. Line 2 will serve the stops on Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße.

Please note: Several stops along the diversion are not accessible, including Körnerstraße, Steinplatz and Richard-Lehmann-Straße/HTWK.

Line 9 will also follow a partially different route until 20 November: during late-evening and early weekend services, it will run from Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz as Line 2 via the Bayerischer Bahnhof and the German National Library to Naunhofer Straße.

Bus route 70 will also be locally diverted until 20 November. At the junction of Zwickauer Straße and Richard-Lehmann-Straße, car traffic will be restricted during the construction work. On Richard-Lehmann-Straße, vehicles from both directions are permitted to turn right only; on Zwickauer Straße, driving straight ahead and turning right remain permitted. Diversions include routes via An der Tabaksmühle, Altenburger Straße and Semmelweisstraße.

Leipzig commemorates the victims of the pogroms

Throughout the day today, numerous events in Leipzig will commemorate the Nazi November pogroms that took place 88 years ago. Church services, vigils and events at Stolpersteine invite people to join in the commemoration. The LZ lists a selection:

At 11 am, the Mendelssohn Foundation will commemorate the Nazi removal of the original Mendelssohn monument on 9 November 1936. The faithful reconstruction was unveiled in October 2008.

At 3 pm at Eisenbahnstraße 97, the painter Sofie Schneider will be commemorated; at Neustädter Straße 13, Fanny Chaja Mann; and in front of Kochstraße 56, the sisters Erika, Genia and Renate Landwirth. The ‘Vigil and Cleaning the Stumbling Stones’ initiative commemorates their experiences of persecution.

At 5.00 pm, a special prayer for peace will be held at St Nicholas’ Church to commemorate the crimes. The Leipzig Jewish-Christian Working Group is taking part.

At Hirtenhaus 5 in Leipzig-Wahren, the Green Party’s North/North-West regional group, together with other participants, will commemorate Rosa and Elise Beermann at 5.00 pm. At 5.30 pm, at Eisenbahnstraße 47, the Weißblüth family and Samuel Hundert will be remembered through biographical accounts. There are also plans to clean the Stolpersteine together.

At 6 pm, the Stolperstein for the Beer family will be cleaned at 15 Ernst-Pinkert-Straße. The family ran a grocery shop there, were deported to Poland and have been missing since 1942. Only their son Joachim is known to have managed to flee to the USA.

The Leipzig Jewish-Christian Working Group and the Thomaskirche parish will commemorate the victims of the November pogroms at 7.00 pm in the Thomaskirche. Rabbi Dr Alexander Grodensky from Luxembourg will deliver the sermon, and the Leipzig Synagogue Choir will provide the musical accompaniment for the service. The Jewish Community of Leipzig will contribute with a welcoming address. The collection will go towards the Ariowitsch House.

Also at 7 pm, Nazi victims who once lived at Erich-Zeigner-Allee 36 and Alexanderstraße 46 (Westplatz) will be commemorated.

The exhibition ‘Images of Remembrance – Destroyed Synagogues in Germany’, featuring paintings by Alexander Dettmar, can be seen at St Peter’s Church (Gaudigplatz 1) until 16 November 2026. The artist brings the Jewish places of worship destroyed during the Nazi era back into view, including synagogues from Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz. The exhibition was organised in collaboration with the Ephraim Carlebach Foundation. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and on Sundays from 3 pm to 5 pm; admission is free.

Talks and jazz on the city’s history

How did the people of Leipzig experience the first year after the Peaceful Revolution, and what role did East Germans themselves play in shaping German reunification? Civil rights activist and author Reinhard Bohse will be addressing these questions today at 7 pm at the naTo (Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 46), also reflecting on the opening of the inner-German border 37 years ago today.

Under the title ‘1990: The “wild” first year without the Wall’, he will present his new book ‘Von einem, der über den Wolken schwebt und auf der Erde landet’ (‘Of one who soars above the clouds and lands on earth’) and will then take part in a discussion with civil rights activist Uwe Schwabe and the audience.

Bohse, born in 1948, was one of the co-founders of the Neues Forum in Leipzig and Forum Verlag in 1989. From 1990 to 1998, he served as press spokesman for the City of Leipzig, experiencing the city’s political and organisational reconstruction at first hand. He later headed up corporate communications at LVB.

For his new book, Bohse has analysed archive material, contemporary newspaper reports and personal documents. In doing so, he says he came to the realisation – which came as a surprise to him – that East Germans had a far greater influence on the events of 1990 than has so far been reflected in the public memory.

His discussion partner, Uwe Schwabe, was also involved in the Peaceful Revolution; he is one of the founders of the Leipzig Citizens’ Movement Archive and serves as its chairman. The event will be opened by publisher Fayçal Hamouda (winner of the 2025 German Publishing Prize).

Conveniently, the author himself will provide the musical accompaniment for the evening! The passionate jazz lover plays the piano in the SUM II trio of the Leipzig Jazz Society. The line-up also includes Eberhard Amende on double bass and Steffen Seifarth on tenor saxophone. Doors open at 6.30 pm; tickets cost 12 euros.