The Opera House, built in the Italian Renaissance style in 1870-1878 according to the blueprints of Gottfried Semper, was reconstructed and reopened back in 1985. Taschenberg Palace owes its restoration to a private investor: Today it is a luxury hotel, for Dresden is once again a magnet for tourists, drawing more than five million visitors each year. For nearly 50 years the ruins of the Baroque Church of Our Lady (built in 1726-1743 by George Bahr) served as a somber reminder of the horrors of war. It is now being reconstructed in an unparalleled endeavor financed largely by donations; upon its completion approximately one third of the original stones will have been reset in their original positions. In the words of Goethe’s “Faust": “Leipzig to me is dear: Paris in miniature, how it refines its people!” The Leipzig Fair has been in existence for more than 800 years.

In recent years the universal fairs of the past have been supplanted by a continuously evolving concept of specialized fairs. With an investment volume of about DM1.5 billion, the former Mockau Airport has been transformed into Europe’s most modern trade exhibition complex, which was inaugurated in April 1996. Since time immemorial Leipzig has been a center of the publishing industry; the annual book fair held here in March has established itself, along with the fair in Frankfurt am Main, as a key fair for contacts with Eastern Europe in particular. The university was founded as early as 1409; in 1993 it was endowed with the first German chair for public relations.

The traditional and the modern.