On The Ball

Nearly three decades since the German reunification, new business, low living costs and a fast-rising football team have seen the eastern city of Leipzig go from bust to boom.

- Andrew Eames

For a decade or so after the demise of East Germany, the steadily depopulating city of Leipzig had little to celebrate in terms of economics, and even less to be proud of on the football field, a crucial ingredient in the self esteem of any German city. But then, in 2009, the Red Bull corporation came knocking, and RB Leipzig was born.

At that stage, the new team had to start out in the lowly fifth tier of the German leagues, but its rise since then has been as meteoric as it has been disapproved of by the country’s footballing traditionalists, who dislike its corporate origins.

Last season it entered the Bundesliga, the equivalent of the Premier League, and ended up finishing an astonishing second, even threatening mighty Bayern Munich. So next year it will be playing in the Champions League, the first club in former East Germany to get to such giddy heights.

Footballing success has been a huge morale boost for a city that had struggled reunification, and its rise has been matched by a shift in the city’s economic status, too. From having lost almost 1,00,000 inhabitants during the difficult post-GDR transitional decade of the 1990s, Leipzig is now the fastest growing city in Germany, attracting 15,000 new residents every year. It has gone from bust to boom.

There are several engines behind that growth. New industry, e-commerce and arts have encamped here, encouraged by low rents and room to grow, earning the city the label of the “new Berlin”. And they are bringing with them increasing tourism as well.