The town now called Markkleeberg has its origins in several towns that have been merged over the years. The center of modern-day Markkleeberg used to be called Oetzsch. It was merged with the smaller outlying district Markkleeberg in 1911 and renamed Oetzsch-Markkleeberg. Oetzsch-Markkleeberg was in turn merged with Gautzsch and the whole town was called "Markkleeberg", although Markkleeberg was the smallest, because it sounded most Germanic at a time of Nazi-led
Germanisation. The etymology of Markkleeberg may be "clover hill market town". The name of Oetzsch has most likely a
Wendish origin. In 1316 it was mentioned in a document as "Euschiz". The village originally had the form of a
Rundling. In 1813 much of the
Battle of Leipzig took place where today's Markkleeberg is situated. During 1944 and 1945, a forced labor camp for women was established in the town, initially a subcamp of the
Ravensbrück concentration camp and later of
Buchenwald. Among the inmates were a thousand Jewish women from Hungary and 250 French resistance fighters. In early April 1945, the surviving inmates were transferred to the
Mauthausen-Gusen camp in Austria. Today, Markkleeberg is a growing town because of its proximity to
Leipzig. == Historical population ==