LEIPZIG. 
301 
Public gardens and open spaces are one of the most prominent features of the 
town, and have been brought within easy reach of all classes of the population 
by a service of cheap and quick electric tramways run by private companies. 
What is now the central and business part of the town is separated from the 
more modern and mainly residential part by a wide zone of promenades 
expanding at intervals into squares and public gardens, and occupying the site 
of former fortifications. For eight weeks in the year, that is to say during the 
fairs, the widest parts of this zone are occupied by great numbers of booths 
engaged in the retail sale of glass, crockery and wooden utensils and ornaments, 
tobacco-pipes, toys, ready-made clothing and underwear, boots and shoes, and 
cheap confectionery and other comestibles. In 1904 (the latest year for which 
figures are available) these booths numbered 614 at the New Year, 1,321 at the 
Easter, and 1,178 at the Michaelmas fair. The resulting obstruction of traffic 
has now induced the municipality to purchase a plot of 25 acres in the extreme 
western suburbs, whither it is proposed that the retail traffic of the fairs shall 
be gradually transferred, and a sum of £20,000 has been voted by the Town 
Council to defray the cost of rendering the newly-purchased ground suitable 
for the accommodation of the booths. The open spaces secured through 
the razing of the fortifications represent, however, only a small fraction 
of the total extent of the open recreation grounds within easy reach of 
dwellers in all parts of Leipzig. The exceptional advantages which the people 
enjoy in this respect are due not only to the great area of the land owned 
by the municipality, and the endowments which it administers, but also to the 
even distribution of that land over all parts of the urban area. Partly by its 
extension outwards, and partly by the progressive incorporation within the city 
boundary of populous outlying parishes, the Leipzig of former days, which 
consisted of about 160 acres of narrow streets closely encircled by the fortifica 
tions, which have since given way to promenades, has gradually assumed a 
shape somewhat resembling that of a Maltese cross with the arms pointing- 
north, south, east, and west, and the spaces between the arms occupied by land 
owned by the municipality or administered by that body on behalf of city 
endowments. Some 2,700 acres of this property are woodland, of which the 
greater part is open to the public for purposes of recreation. 
The population of Leipzig has increased more rapidly since 1871 than that 
of any of the other great cities of Saxony. The number of inhabitants at each 
census from 1871 to 1905, and the intercensal increases during this period, were 
as follows :— 
Year. 
Population. 
1871.. . 
1875.. . 
1880.. . 
1885.. . 
1890.. . 
1895.. . 
1900.. . 
1905.. . 
106,925 
127,387 
149,081 
170,340 
295,025 
399,969 
455,089 
502,570 
Increase. 
Increase per cent. 
20,462 
21,694 
21,259 
124,685 
104,944 
55,120 
47,481 
19-1 
17-0 
14-3 
73-2 
35 6 
13-8 
10-4 
At the end of 1905 therefore Leipzig had a population nearly five times 
as great as at the end of 1871. A considerable part of the increase has, 
however, been due to successive incorporations of outlying parishes, more 
especially since the year 1889. In that year the two parishes of Anger- 
Crottendorf and Reudnitz with some 23,000 inhabitants were absorbed, and on 
January 1st of each of the years 1890, 1891 and 1892 additions of 57,000, 
60,000 and 2,000 respectively were made to the population of Leipzig through 
the incorporation of 15 further parishes within the municipal area.