From the open pit to the lake oasis

The village of Cospuden was a district of Markkleeberg. The name Cospuden can be traced back to Heinricius de Kozebude, who owned the estate in 1216. In 1885 the village of Cospuden was incorporated into Zöbigker and later - in 1937 - to Markkleeberg. 

However, the village had to give way to lignite mining in the south of Leipzig in 1974. In 1978/79, Zöbigker was relocated and in Knauthain (Gut Lauer) and 1984/86, Markkleeberg was relocated (Märchenhain / Alte Ziegelei area).

The state road S 46 between Markkleeberg-West and Knauthain was relocated as well as numerous lines of the technical infrastructure. Several sports fields and the Alte Ziegelei allotment garden had to give way to the opencast mine. In 1981 exploration work began in the “Cospuden construction field” of the Zwenkau opencast mine (formerly Böhlen opencast mine).

Production began in August 1981. The Cospuden opencast mine took up an area of ​​around 3 km², around 87 million m³ of overburden was moved and around 32 million tons of raw lignite were extracted. With an overburden to coal ratio of 3: 1, this opencast mine was one of the most profitable opencast mines in Central Germany. The price of dismantling was the destruction of a large area of ​​floodplain landscape, around 116 hectares of floodplain forest was destroyed. Originally, the Cospuden opencast mine was to be operated until 1996.

The political change and the "Stop Cospuden" citizens' initiative accelerated the closure of the open-cast mine. In 1990 the last coal train left the open pit, the remaining decarburization was finished on October 07.10.1992th, XNUMX.

Recultivation work began in 1991, a ring line for water transfer from the active opencast mines in Zwenkau and Profen was put into operation, and the remaining opencast mine was flooded between 1993 and 2000. Until the year 2000 - when the planned lake water level was reached - about 65.000 m³ of water - swamp water - were discharged from the Profen opencast mine every day.

A decisive step in the development of Lake Cospuden took place with the decision of the cities of Leipzig and Markkleeberg to participate in the EXPO 2000 with decentralized projects. In June 2000 the landscape park Cospuden was opened as part of the Expo 2000. Since then, Lake Cospuden has been one of the most popular lakes in Leipzig's New Lake District with around 500.000 visitors a year.