Markkleeberg is an affluent suburb of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, located in the Leipzig district of the

Free State of Saxony Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

, Germany. The river

Pleiße The Pleiße is a river of Saxony and Thuringia, Germany. The Pleiße has its source southwest of Zwickau at Ebersbrunn, then flows through Werdau, Crimmitschau, Altenburg, and other towns and villages in Saxony and Thuringia, before flowing ...

runs through the city, which borders Leipzig to the north and to the west. Markkleeberg is known to be the entry point to a region of recultivated open-cast mining lakes south of Leipzig dubbed the ''Leipziger Neuseenland''.

History

The town now called Markkleeberg has its origins in several towns that have been merged over the years. The center of modern-day Markkleeberg used to be called Oetzsch. It was merged with the smaller outlying district Markkleeberg in 1911 and renamed Oetzsch-Markkleeberg. Oetzsch-Markkleeberg was in turn merged with Gautzsch and the whole town was called "Markkleeberg", although Markkleeberg was the smallest, because it sounded most Germanic at a time of Nazi-led

Germanisation Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

. The etymology of Markkleeberg may be "clover hill market town". The name of Oetzsch has most likely a Wendish origin. In 1316 it was mentioned in a document as "Euschiz". The village originally had the form of a Rundling. In 1813 much of the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

took place where today's Markkleeberg is situated. During 1944 and 1945, a forced labor camp for women was established in the town, initially a subcamp of the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

and later of

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

. Among the inmates were a thousand Jewish women from Hungary and 250 French resistance fighters. In early April 1945, the surviving inmates were transferred to the

Mauthausen-Gusen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany ...

camp in Austria. Today, Markkleeberg is a growing town because of its proximity to

Historical population

(Source since 1998: Statistical bureau of Saxony)

Culture

Markkleeberg is a well-known tourist destination. Cospudener See,

Markkleeberger See Markkleeberger See is a lake in Saxony, Germany, next to Markkleeberg, a suburb on the south side of Leipzig. At an elevation of 112.5 m, its surface area is 2.52 km². It is a former open-pit coal mine, flooded in 1999 with groundwater and ...

Kanupark Markkleeberg Kanupark Markkleeberg, built in 2006, is the second of two artificial whitewater canoe/kayak slalom courses in Germany, and the only one powered by pumps. The other German course is the Eiskanal in Augsburg, used in the 1972 Summer Olympic Games ...

as well as many parks are close to the city. File:Markkleeberg Rathaus.jpg, Markkleeberg town hall File:Markkleeberg Schloss.jpg, Markkleeberg castle File:Musentempel im Herbst, 1710150958, ako.jpg, ''Musentempel'',

monopteros A monopteros (Ancient Greek: , from the Polytonic: μόνος, 'only, single, alone', and , 'wing') is a circular colonnade supporting a roof but without any walls. Unlike a tholos (in its wider sense as a circular building), it does not have w ...

in the Agra park File:Wachau-Mai-2009 065.jpg, Ruined church in Wachau File:Oetzsch-Mai-2009 007.jpg,

Gründerzeit (; "founders' period") was the economic phase in 19th-century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. In Central Europe, the age of industrialisation had been taking place since the 1840s. That period is not precisely ...

house in Markkleeberg File:Markkleeberger See Wildwasseranlage2.jpg,

File:Kirche-Kees.jpg, Keesscher park and Martin Luther church

Twin towns – sister cities

Markkleeberg is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: *

Boville Ernica Boville Ernica is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy. It is located over the summit of a steep hill commanding the Liri, Cosa and Sacco valleys. History The town's history stretches back to pre- Roman times, which i ...

, Italy *

Neusäß Neusäß (English transcription: Neusaess, Swabian: ''Neisäß'', Neusäß ) is a town in the District of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. The town lies on the Schmutter river and borders the city of Augsburg. , the city had 22,164 inhabitants.Munici ...

, Germany * Pierre-Bénite, France *

Zărnești Zărnești (; german: link=no, Molkendorf, Zernescht; hu, Zernest) is a town in Brașov County, Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 21,681. It administers one village, Tohanu Nou (''Neu-Tohan''; ''Újtohán''). It is located near the ...

, Romania

References

Leipzig (district) {{Leipzig-geo-stub