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Leipzig Hauptbahnhof
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof
Terminal station
	View from City-Hochhaus
General information
Location	Willy-Brandt-Platz 5, Leipzig, Saxony; Germany
Coordinates	51°20′43″N 12°22′56″E / 51.34528°N 12.38222°E
Owned by	Deutsche Bahn
Operated by	DB InfraGO
Line(s)	Leipzig–Eilenburg (KBS 215); Leipzig–Bitterfeld-Dessau (KBS 251); Leipzig–Halle (KBS 340); Leipzig–Dresden (KBS 500); Leipzig–Halle (HSL) (KBS 504); Leipzig–Meißen (KBS 506); Leipzig–Chemnitz (KBS 525); Leipzig–Hof (KSB 530); Leipzig–Gera (KBS 550); Leipzig–Weißenfels (KBS 582); Leipzig City Tunnel;
Platforms	21 long distance platforms (19 + 2 City Tunnel)
Construction
Architect	William Lossow [de]; Max Hans Kühne [de]
Other information
Station code	3631
DS100 code	LL; LL T (City Tunnel);
Category	1
Fare zone	MDV: 110
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	4 December 1915; 109 years ago
Electrified	1922-1946; 9 June 1958; 66 years ago
Services
Location
Location
	Leipzig Location within Saxony Leipzig Location within Germany Leipzig Location within Europe

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station, IATA: XIT) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany, in the district Mitte. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe's largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298-metre-long (978 ft) facade at the northeastern section of the Inner City Ring Road.^[1]^[2] The two Leipzig City Tunnel platforms were inaugurated in December 2013.^[5]

The station is owned by DB InfraGO, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, and is classified as a Category 1 station, one of twenty in Germany. It also functions as a large shopping centre.^[6] Train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn, S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland, Erfurter Bahn and Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn. As of 2008, Leipzig Hauptbahnhof handled an average of 120,000 passengers per day.^[7]

In 2021, Leipzig Hauptbahnhof was ranked the best railway station in Europe.^[8]

History

After the opening of the Leipzig–Dresden railway line in 1839, followed by the Magdeburg-Leipzig railway one year later, the Leipzig–Hof railway in 1842, and the Leipzig–Großkorbetha railway in 1856, Leipzig had become the most important railway junction in the Kingdom of Saxony. Initially trains departed from separate termini, such as Bayerischer Bahnhof, located southeast of the Leipzig city centre. While the city's population increased sharply, especially upon German unification in 1871, the spatial separation proved to be complicated and ineffective.

By 1895, the Saxon railway lines were nationalized under the umbrella of the Royal Saxon State Railways, while the lines of the former Magdeburg–Halberstadt, Berlin-Anhalt, and Halle-Sorau-Guben railway companies had been incorporated into the Prussian state railways. Already in 1875, plans for the establishment of a united German imperial railway organisation, as proposed by Albert von Maybach, had failed due to the antagonism of the Central German states, notably by the Saxon government. Therefore, two state railways rivalled to meet the demands of a steadily growing transport volume in the Leipzig area.

Finally in 1898, the Leipzig city council decided on a joint terminal for Royal Saxon and Prussian state railways north of the city centre. A building contract with both organisations was signed in 1902 and an architectural competition with 76 participants was held in 1906. The winning design by the architects William Lossow (1852–1914) and Max Hans Kühne (1874–1942) featured two identical domed entrance halls facing the street, one for each company. The foundation stone was laid on 16 November 1909 and the platforms were gradually brought into operation station from 1912 onwards. When construction works finished on 4 December 1915, Leipzig Hauptbahnhof had become one of the world's largest railway stations with 26 platforms.

The separate administration of the Saxon and Prussian parts of the station continued even after World War I and the establishment of the nationwide Deutsche Reichsbahn railway organisation in 1920. Not until 1934 Leipzig Hauptbahnhof as a whole was assigned to the Reichsbahn directorate in Halle. By 1939, it had become one of Germany's busiest railway stations. The building was severely damaged by Allied bombing during World War II when during an air raid by the US Eighth Air Force on 7 July 1944 the roof over the concourse collapsed and the western entrance hall was destroyed. Numerous travellers and railway employees were killed. Rail traffic discontinued completely in April 1945.

After the war, train service was quickly resumed. The hardly damaged eastern entrance hall was restored by 1949, and the western hall was rebuilt to its original appearance by the Deutsche Reichsbahn railway company of East Germany in the early 1950s. The concourse, however, remained without a roofing, until in 1954 the East German Council of Ministers resolved upon a complete reconstruction. The full restoration of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof was finished on 4 December 1965, 50 years after its inauguration.

After German reunification the station was renovated and modernized by the Deutsche Bahn AG. The concourse floor was removed and two basement levels were dug out to create a shopping mall. Other areas of the building were largely restored and modernized at the time. The Design and Planning were done by the architectural firm HPP based in Düsseldorf. The modified station building was inaugurated on 12 November 1997.

The Leipzig City Tunnel, an underground railway line between the south of Leipzig and Hauptbahnhof via the central Markt station, opened on 14 December 2013.^[9]^[10] Further modifications of platforms and tracks are currently being carried out in the course of the construction of the Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway line, part of the European Berlin–Palermo railway axis.

Concourse after modification
Interior during Christmas
First train at the Leipzig City Tunnel on 14 December 2013

Historic exhibits

On the site of closed track No. 24, several historical Deutsche Reichsbahn locomotives are on display:

Class 52 steam locomotive 52 5448-7
Class SVT 137 Diesel multiple unit 137 225
Class E04 AC electric locomotive E04 01
Class E44 AC electric locomotive E44 046
Class E94 AC electric locomotive E94 056

Movie set

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof served as a backdrop for several films, such as

Shining Through (1992)
Obsession (1997)
Mr. Nobody (2009).

Train services

The following services currently call at the station:^[11]

Long distance

Line	Route	Interval (min)	Operator
ICE 11	Hamburg – Berlin – Lutherstadt Wittenberg – Leipzig – Erfurt – Frankfurt – Stuttgart – Augsburg – Munich	120	DB Fernverkehr
ICE 28	Hamburg – Berlin – Lutherstadt Wittenberg – Leipzig – Erfurt – Bamberg – Nuremberg – Munich	120
ICE 50	Dresden – Riesa – Leipzig – Erfurt – Eisenach – Fulda – Frankfurt – Mainz – Wiesbaden	120
IC 55	Dresden – Riesa – Leipzig – Halle – Magdeburg – Braunschweig – Hannover – Bielefeld – Dortmund – Wuppertal – Cologne – Bonn – Mainz – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart (– Tübingen)	120
IC 56	Leipzig – Halle – Magdeburg – Braunschweig – Hannover – Bremen – Oldenburg – Leer – Emden – Norddeich Mole	120
IC 57	Leipzig – Halle – Magdeburg – Stendal – Wittenberge – Ludwigslust – Schwerin – Rostock (– Warnemünde)	2 train pairs
IC 61	Leipzig – Naumburg – Jena – Saalfeld – Lichtenfels – Nuremberg – Aalen – Schorndorf – Stuttgart – Pforzheim – Karlsruhe	120
FLX 35	Leipzig – Berlin Südkreuz – Berlin Hbf – Berlin-Spandau – Hamburg Hbf	1 or 2 train pairs	Flixtrain

Regional and S-Bahn

Line	Route	Interval (min)	Operator
RE 6	Leipzig – Belgershain – Bad Lausick – Geithain – Burgstädt – Chemnitz	060	Transdev
RE 10	Leipzig – Eilenburg – Torgau – Falkenberg – Doberlug-Kirchhain – Calau – Cottbus	120	DB Regio Nordost
RE 12	Leipzig – Pegau – Zeitz – Bad Köstritz – Gera – Weida – Pößneck – Saalfeld	120	Erfurter Bahn
RE 13	Leipzig – Delitzsch – Bitterfeld – Dessau – Zerbst – Biederitz – Magdeburg	060	DB Regio Südost
RE 42	Leipzig – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Jena – Saalfeld – Bamberg – Erlangen – Nuremberg	120	DB Regio Bayern
RE 50	Leipzig – Wurzen – Oschatz – Riesa – Priestewitz – Radebeul Ost – Dresden	060	DB Regio Südost
RB 20	Leipzig – Bad Dürrenberg – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Apolda – Weimar – Erfurt – Gotha – Eisenach	060	Abellio
RB 22	Leipzig – Pegau – Zeitz – Bad Köstritz – Gera – Weida – Pößneck – Könitz – Saalfeld	120	Erfurter Bahn
RB 110	Leipzig – Borsdorf – Grimma – Leisnig – Döbeln	060	Transdev
RB 113	Leipzig – Belgershain – Bad Lausick – Geithain	060	DB Regio Südost
S 1	Leipzig Miltitzer Allee – Leipzig-Plagwitz – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Leipzig-Stötteritz	030
S 2	(Jüterbog –) Wittenberg / Dessau – Bitterfeld – Delitzsch – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Leipzig-Stötteritz	030
S 3	Halle-Trotha – Halle – Schkeuditz – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Leipzig-Connewitz (– Markkleeberg-Gaschwitz)	030
S 4	Hoyerswerda – Falkenberg – Eilenburg – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Leipzig-Stötteritz – Wurzen (– Oschatz)	030
S 5	Halle – Flughafen Leipzig/Halle – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Markkleeberg – Altenburg – Gößnitz – Zwickau	060
S 5X	Halle – Flughafen Leipzig/Halle – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Markkleeberg – Altenburg – Gößnitz – Zwickau	060
S 6	Leipzig Messe – Leipzig – Leipzig Markt – Leipzig-Connewitz – Markkleeberg – Borna – Geithain	030 (Mon–Fri)

Gallery

Aerial picture of the station
One of the two identical entrance halls
Concourse
Train shed detail
Train shed
Inside the train shed
Inside the sheds in 1954, before the glass shattered in the war had been replaced
The ruined concourse in 1956, still open to the elements before rebuilding
1957: Partially restored, but the concourse is still without a roof.
Exterior, 1962
Exterior, 1965
Exterior, 1965
Holocaust memorial
Electric locomotive on display
Exterior, 2010

Notes

^ Since 1946 catenaries and overhead line masts were dismantled as Soviet war reparations.

References

^ ^a ^b "OpenRailwayMap" (Map). Map of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof. Cartography by OpenStreetMap. OpenRailwayMap. 28 September 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-19.
^ ^a ^b "Lageplan Hauptbahnhof Leipzig" (PDF) (orientation map) (in German). Deutsche Bahn AG. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2014-10-19.
^ "Stationspreisliste 2025" [Station price list 2025] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 28 November 2024. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
^ "Tarifzonenplan" (PDF) (in German). Mitteldeutscher Verkehrsverbund GmbH. 1 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
^ Pressestelle. "Startseite - sachsen.de". www.citytunnelleipzig.de. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
^ "PHL". www.promenaden-hauptbahnhof-leipzig.de. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
^ Shopping und Service – 140 Geschäfte laden zum Bummeln und Verweilen ein. Accessed 13 December 2008 Archived April 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ "European Railway Station Index 2021".
^ Große Pläne, große Probleme, Freizeitpark Nürburgring, Hamburger Elbphilharmonie, Leipziger City-Tunnel, Leipziger Volkszeitung, August 17. 2012 (in German)
^ "City-Tunnel Leipzig startet mit Volksfest – heute kostenlose Pendelfahrten für alle - Leipzigs Citytunnel - Aktuell Themen - LVZ-Online". Archived from the original on 2013-12-15. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
^ "Kursbuch der Deutschen Bahn". kursbuch.bahn.de. Retrieved Jul 24, 2020.