Zeppelinhaus, Commercial heritage monument on Nikolaistrasse, Leipzig, Germany

Zeppelinhaus is a four-wing, five-storey building at Nikolaistraße 27/29, 27 metres wide along the street and over 45 metres deep, enclosing a glass-covered courtyard of about 10 by 16 metres. The ground-floor shop zone is clad in dark natural stone with round arches, while the upper floors are limestone; eight pilasters divide the facade into seven sections of three window axes. The windows of the first to third upper floors are polygonal with a wavy top, projecting in bay-like half-circles on the first and second floors with animal heads beneath the cornice.

The site at Nikolaistrasse 29 was a municipal brewery from 1654, brewing the simple Breuhahn beer until 1821. Fur trader Felix Reimann bought it in 1908, joined it with No. 27 in 1910, and had Gustav Pflaume design this commercial building in 1911/12. The 1914 address book lists 19 fur-trade firms here.

The facade displays a relief of Count Zeppelin, marking the era when airships represented modern German innovation. The building brought together merchants and businesses from different trades, becoming a place where commerce and progress intersected in the city.

The Zeppelinhaus stands on Nikolaistraße 27/29, a short walk from both the Nikolaikirche and Leipzig Hauptbahnhof. The central entrance on Nikolaistraße opens through an iron decorative grille into a passage leading to the glass-covered courtyard, roughly 10 by 16 metres, so pedestrians can cross the block between Nikolaistraße and the parallel street. The building is a listed monument and now houses the university's Institute for Communication and Media Studies, so the courtyard is best visited on weekdays during teaching hours.

The address book of 1914 lists 19 businesses of the fur trade at Nikolaistraße 27/29, not tobacco firms. The site itself had been a municipal brewery: the city council bought No. 29 in 1654 and brewed a simple beer called Breuhahn there until 1821, which gave the house its name Raths Breuhahn-Brauhaus.