On 20 October 2013 a great battle took place on the outskirts of Leipzig. On a battlefield measuring 500,000 square meters, 6,000 men from 26 countries (women were allowed only as camp followers on the edges of the battlefield) donned their colorful period uniforms, cleaned their old muskets, loaded them with blanks and brought their cannon into position to reenact, with much thunder and gun smoke, the so-called Battle of the Nations of 16–19 October 1813. The event organizer, the Verband Jahrfeier Völkerschlacht b. Leipzig 1813 e.V. (Association to Commemorate the 1813 Battle of the Nations at Leipzig), repeatedly emphasized to the public and the press – 350 journalists from home and abroad observed the spectacle – that the reenacted scenario was historically accurate and had been developed and checked by a military history commission. The combat demonstration by the infantry, cavalry and artillery lasted several hours. A total of 35,000 spectators were admitted, but the same number had to be turned away because the crowd that gathered to watch the spectacle surpassed all expectations.

The reenactment was the spectacular close to a commemorative week in Leipzig and environs recalling the Battle of the Nations and the consecration 100 years later of the monument erected to it. Numerous events surrounding the double anniversary took place throughout the year under the slogan “Leipzig 1813–1913–2013 – A Landmark of European History,” organized by the city of Leipzig, especially the museums and city archive, in cooperation with the Verband Jahrfeier Völkerschlacht b. Leipzig 1813 e.V. and financed by private sponsors and the tourism industry. The public commemoration in 2013 focused on military combat (in the reenactment), the history of memory of the battle and the “Wars of Liberation” and the associated national myths and legends (in the exhibition at the Leipzig City Museum, Helden nach Maß or Heroes Made to Measure), and the hardship and suffering of the civilian population (in the massive panorama “Leipzig 1813 – Amidst the Confusion of the Battle of the Nations” by artist Yadgar Asisi in Leipzig’s Gasometer).