Like other cities in East Germany, Leipzig has seen many of inhabitants leave since the fall of the Berlin wall. Today, certain abandoned industrial districts have been renovated, and the city is trying to encourage a middle class attracted by low rents to cohabit with disadvantaged populations that have always lived here.

The Plagwitz district of Leipzig was one of the biggest manufacturing hubs in turn-of-the-century Europe. The textile industry flourished here. Today, the only traces left are the skeletons of dead factories. Hollow-eyed brick buildings on grounds overrun with scruffy shrubbery. An industrial wasteland surrounded by what used to be the workers' dwellings. This is the sad face of a city on the wane.

And yet there is life in this neighbourhood west of the city centre. Some of the erstwhile factory buildings have been recycled for new purposes: small-scale community activities, youth clubs, gyms. The old cotton mill is a case in point: in mid-June German Chancellor Angela Merkel officially opened an exhibition on the premises featuring artists who work there, a number of whom are internationally renowned.

"Some artists feel the west side has become much too elitist," explains Tobias Habermann. "They leave to seek their salvation elsewhere in Leipzig." They are the ones, however, who have given these neighbourhoods such a trendy image. "Around Lindenauer Markt, for example, 11 galleries have opened up recently. But most of the people you see hanging out at this square are welfare cases or 16-year-old mothers with prams."