Auerbachs Keller

The story

Dr Heinrich Stromer began serving wine to students in his cellar in 1525, establishing one of Germany’s oldest and most famous inns. Goethe frequented it as a student and later made Auerbachs Keller the first stop in Faust and Mephistopheles’ travels. Rebuilt beneath the Mädler Passage in 1912–13, the restaurant now joins intimate historic rooms to the Großer Keller, a vaulted, mural-lined dining hall opened in 1913 for hundreds of guests.

Why Auerbachs Keller is iconic

This is a rare union of literary myth, five centuries of hospitality and a genuinely monumental restaurant interior. The vast painted arches, dark timber and crowded tables of the Großer Keller make Leipzig’s most famous dining room both theatrical and unmistakably rooted in the city.

Selected by Ernst Aben · Information reviewed July 2026