Brühl (Leipzig) facts for kids
The Brühl is a famous street in the heart of Leipzig, Germany. It is located just inside where the old city wall used to be. For a long time, until the 1930s, the Brühl was a very important place for the international fur trade. People from all over the world came here to buy and sell furs.
History of the Brühl
At one end of the Brühl, where it meets Katharinenstraße, stands the beautiful Romanus house. This building was built between 1701 and 1704 for the mayor of Leipzig. It is one of the best examples of Baroque style buildings still standing in the city.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Brühl was part of the Jewish area of Leipzig. A synagogue was built there in 1763. Jewish people who came to the yearly Leipzig Fair would often stay in the Brühl and the streets nearby.
The Brühl continued to be important for the Jewish community into the 1900s. The street was a major center for the world's fur trade. A famous fur trader named Chaim Eitingon, who was known as the 'king of the fur trade', opened a business here in 1893. By the 1920s, the Brühl handled about one-third of all the fur trade in the entire world! Many Jewish people in Leipzig worked in the fur industry, making the Brühl a symbol of their business success in the city.
However, in 1938, under the Nazi government, many businesses in the Brühl district were unfairly taken from their Jewish owners. This changed the street a lot.
Today, the Brühl has a mix of old and new buildings. Some buildings are from the 1800s and early 1900s. Most of the other buildings were built in the mid-1900s. A well-known modern building on the street is the city's Museum of Fine Arts.
Richard Wagner's Birthplace
The famous composer Richard Wagner was born in the Brühl in 1813. His birthplace was at number 3, in a building called the 'House of the Red and White Lions'.
Sadly, Wagner's birthplace was torn down in 1886, just three years after he passed away. Later, in 1908, a large department store with seven floors was built on the same spot. In 1968, this department store got a very unique new look. Its outside was covered with a special aluminum design, created by Harry Müller. Because of its shiny metal surface, people nicknamed this building the Blechbüchse, which means "tin can."
In the 21st century, the "tin can" building was no longer used. It, along with some nearby apartment buildings, was replaced by a new shopping center. This new center is called "Höfe am Brühl" and it opened in 2015. A part of the old 1968 department store's metal front was kept. The new shopping center also has a special memorial to Richard Wagner at the exact spot where he was born.
Today, a street that runs next to the Brühl is named Richard-Wagner-Straße. Also, the square at the western end of the Brühl is called Richard-Wagner-Platz.
