Leipzig - the home of Auerbach's Cellar

Sunday – A much slower start today. After breakfast we drove to the village where Brigitte’s mother and sister live and where the mobile home is garaged. Following a look at the motor home on the way back to the apartment we also stopped at the Russian Remembrance church but couldn’t really go in as there was a church service under way. A relaxing afternoon with the Johann Sebastian Bach organ recital at 16:00 in the Gewandhaus. The recital went for one hour, but being totally submersed in the music, the time passed very quickly. For dinner Brigitte had reserved a place at the 600-year-old famous Auerbachs keller. A wonderful experience with fabulous regional food which of course included a lot of pork and a beer or two. No entrée or desert but we were well satisfied after the meal. Our walk home was cold but quick. The night ended with a drink to warm us up before going to bed.

Auerbach's Cellar
A wine bar at the site was mentioned in historical records dated 1438. The present-day restaurant is located below the Mädlerpassage, a historic covered passage built from 1912 to 1914 at Grimmaische Strasse 2 in Leipzig's historical district. The restaurant has five historical dining rooms: the Fasskeller (Barrel Cellar), Lutherzimmer (Luther Room), Goethezimmer (Goethe Room), Alt-Leipzig (Old Leipzig), and, since 1913, the Großer Keller (Large Cellar). There is also the Mephisto Bar on the floor above available for drinks. The Mädlerpassage replaced the former Auerbachs Hof, a trade fair building complex, erected about 1530 at the behest of Heinrich Stromer (1482–1542), city councillor, professor of medicine, and rector of Leipzig University. Stromer was familiarly called Doctor Auerbach after his birthplace, the town of Auerbach in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate region. When he re-opened the already existing wine vault in the basement rooms, the bar quickly adopted his name. Young Goethe often visited Auerbach's Cellar while studying at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768 and called it his favourite wine bar. He saw there two paintings on wood dating from 1625, one depicting the legendary magician and astrologer Johann Georg Faust drinking with students and the other showing him riding out the door astride a wine barrel. Goethe was already familiar with the Faust legend from his youth. Between 1912 and 1913 much of Auerbach's Cellar was reconstructed and expanded as part of the demolition of the medieval construction above it and the erection of the Mädlerpassage. It was reopened on 22 February 1913, which is also the date when the two sculptures Mephisto and Faust and Bewitched Students were placed at the entrance.Read more