The Main Façade of the Humboldt-Gymnasium in Leipzig
In the Leipzig district of Reudnitz-Thonberg, at Möbiusstraße 8, stands the present-day Humboldt-Gymnasium – a school building from the turn of the 20th century whose façade carries an unusual link to Leipzig’s city centre.
Building History
Construction of the school building began in 1908 and it was inaugurated on 5 April 1910. The design and construction were overseen by city architect Otto Wilhelm Scharenberg and municipal architect Czapek. The building was originally erected for the Lessing-Schule; it was only in 1935 that today’s Humboldtschule moved in and gave the building its current name.
Façade and the Fleischbänke Reference
The symmetrically organised street façade is defined by four projecting bays crowned with curved Renaissance-style scrolled gables – two corner bays, a central bay above the round-arched main entrance, and a further, slightly recessed gable. Light-coloured plaster surfaces contrast with red sandstone at the base, window surrounds, and gable framing.
These gables are not a free invention but a deliberate quotation: Scharenberg and Czapek modelled them on the Renaissance meat market hall (Fleischbänke) on Leipzig’s Reichsstraße 3/5, built in 1578 to a design by master builder Paul Widemann. At precisely the time the school was being built, the Fleischbänke had to make way for the new municipal trade fair building, the Handelshof. Strikingly, the architects didn’t just borrow the form of the old gables – they actually reused salvaged material from the demolished building in the school’s new gables. A fragment of Leipzig’s old city centre lives on, quite literally, on a school building in the city’s east.
The School Today
The Humboldtschule – officially the Humboldtschule, Gymnasium der Stadt Leipzig – is a municipally run secondary school offering both a science-focused and an arts-focused track. Around 950 students attend the institution, which today spans two separate buildings. The school building on Möbiusstraße, including its front garden, enclosure, and schoolyard, is protected as a heritage ensemble.
