Calling All Hipsters: Leipzig Is the New Berlin

[sysop]

Berlin used to be Germany's hippest city, but the once scruffy capital has long since succumbed to gentrification. The latest city to attract the creative class is the former East German industrial seat of Leipzig. Moving in by the thousands, they are lured by the euphoric buzz of cheap rent and youthful ingenuity.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-863088.html

[ofelas]

Originally Posted by sysop

Berlin used to be Germany's hippest city, but the once scruffy capital has long since succumbed to gentrification. The latest city to attract the creative class is the former East German industrial seat of Leipzig. Moving in by the thousands, they are lured by the euphoric buzz of cheap rent and youthful ingenuity.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-863088.html

Hipsters, please do move to Leipzig and stay away from my favourite pub on Upper Street

I have been disillusioned with Berlin for some years now. A lot of it was really non-sense anyway, with pseudo-jazz bands and Nick-Cave copy-artists from other countries like Australia and France. The big cities like New York and Berlin are home to some form of new aristocracy that have poor people shot in the street by police and only support the most uppercrust forms of art. In the USA, you are better off in Sante Fe New Mexico or somewhere if you are an artist, than New York. Europe is the same. Unless you like yuppie pop art rather than anything more original.

[BTraven]

Great to read that Leipzig is a prospering city again even if the town appeals only to young artists and students to live there. It has always been a cosmopolitan town which has welcomed strangers warmly. People are easygoing. It had benefited very much from incorporating settlements situated next to the old town border. There is enough room to prosper.

[Jappie]

> The Leipzig Games Convention, for example, was a flop.
It's completely wrong - the last year it was made together with BIU (Germans association of computer game developers and entertainment industry) in 2008 it had more than ever visitors. It was such a great success that Cologne-fair made a deal with BIU in 2008 to move it to Cologne (officially explained with lack of hotels at Leipzig - what was not true). Of course: Without cooperation of BIU and with a second fair at the same time in Germany you can not run such a event successfully anymore.

[mnemonic]

Don't move to leipzig and believe there are no problems with old gdr people, nazis or the strange police or with the most of the original inhabitants. they claim the city for themselfes!

most of them are agains foreigners, i know a lot of people who tried it several times but they had everytime trouble with their employers, officials, football hools, gang of nazirockers, nazistudents and so on. even the music-clubs aren't safe!

i promise this city isn't safe & definatly not harmless with foreigners, no matter from where they come.

the most of them moved to hamburg & berlin better places for living & beeing senseless hipster....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PDMWrqgrqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpQ4p-EKk0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DrNN3f5gu4

[dae_delus]

nice read article but with some mistakes. Leipzig has a lot of upper class culture and has always been a centre of German high culture such as music. literature and design. still, the city is far better in combining subculture and high culture than Dresden.

although it is a mid-size city, it leaves space for quite many niches you want to live in. and in the difference to Berlin, no one cares whether you're a "cool looking" person. in this respect it is much more easy going than in the capital.

@mnemonic: that is nonsense!

[antiracist]

This article is a big joke. For one thing, sunday in leipzig is dead, very dead, and building the world's shortest subway (for years) won't help.

But the most nasty thing about leipzig is the racism (they have a term themselves and they call it "arrogance", not racism. what a joke!). If you are not white, you know what I mean. I was yielded at by a woman during jogging, some guy pushed me from behind when I was waiting for a tram at augustusplatz, the neonazis has a parade through the rathaus every year, a south american friend got bullied at work everyday. All the barbaric behaviours, you name it, leipzig has got it.

leipzigers are hypocrites. they say guten tag at a public venue to everyone whom they don't know, but my white german neighbours never say hallo to me.

I don't know how much the leipzigers represent germany, but i can tell you that having lived in asia, north america & europe, leipzig is for me the most racist & inhospitable city in the world.

Don't come here & I'm glad I'm leaving.