We are in the fourth month of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025. How is the first interim balance?

Wonderful! The opening in January with 80,000 visitors was a huge success - especially for an open-air event in winter. Since then, we have seen a growing number of visitors in all areas: city tours are fully booked, hotels and restaurants are satisfied, as are museums - and that in the otherwise rather quiet months.

That's uplifting! In 2020, when the title of Capital of Culture was awarded, my impression was that the people I know in Chemnitz were incredibly happy. Can you confirm that, what did that trigger in the city, how did you perceive the mood?

I was in Berlin that day and watched the broadcast on the monitor. I saw all the faces in Chemnitz from the town hall and the scene and how they all jumped up, threw their hands up and cheered. I still get goosebumps today when I tell people that.

The great joy was certainly also due to the fact that many people in Chemnitz perceived 2018 as a particularly terrible year. What role does the year play in the Capital of Culture bid and in the design of the program?

2018 was terrible, you can't sugarcoat it. The right-wing scene mobilized and there were nationwide calls for marches in Chemnitz. 2018 then played an active role in the application for the Capital of Culture. Today, our program focuses on the participation of civil society and activating the people of Chemnitz. Today, it's about social responsibility, self-efficacy, transformation and self-perception, about a new image of the city.

Is this being well received

Yes, the events are full. Programs like the European Workshop for Culture and Democracy show this: People are taking part. The motto of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 “C the Unseen” is good for the city - it's about being seen, but also about seeing yourself in a new light.

What changes do you expect beyond the European Capital of Culture year 2025?

We want to create lasting structures. The Hartmann factory has become a visitor center, the former streetcar depot is now a garage campus. There is also the new Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House in the artist's parents' house. Karl Schmidt was born in Rottluff - now a district of Chemnitz - in 1884. As a co-founder of the Brücke group of artists, he is a key representative of Expressionism in Germany. The sites established during the Capital of Culture year, together with the institutions firmly anchored in the cultural landscape, are also intended to strengthen cultural tourism in the long term.

In addition to Chemnitz, the cross-border European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica in Slovenia and Gorizia in Italy were also presented at the Leipzig Book Fair. In Nova Gorica, cultural life largely came to a standstill after the collapse of Yugoslavia, whereas it flourished in Chemnitz after the fall of communism - so the theory goes. How do you see that?

I wouldn't want to accept the thesis without reservation - there was a lot going on culturally in Chemnitz even in GDR times. The Clara Mosch artists' group, for example, worked independently of socialist realism and became known beyond the region. Or Hartwig Albiro, who shaped the Schauspielhaus from 1971 and worked with great personas such as Frank Castorf, Ulrich Mühe and Corinna Harfouch. After reunification, there was a strong upswing in freelance, independent artists.

What measures make Chemnitz a European Capital of Culture today?

Many projects have a European focus. For example, the “Tales of Transformation” exhibition at the Museum of Industry, which shows the joint industrial development of European cities. It was conceived with partners from Manchester, Gabrowo, Łódź, Mulhouse and Tampere. The major show “European Realities” at the Gunzenhauser Museum, part of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, brings together works of realist art from 22 European countries - an impressive cross-section of Europe's art history in the period between the two world wars. An exhibition on Edvard Munch entitled “Angst” will follow from August 2025. The starting point is his painting The Scream, which addresses social issues of our time - far beyond art history.

What does this mean?

The exhibition illustrates the immense topicality of “fear” and the need to address this taboo subject. Art, music and dance are possibilities for a personal confrontation with fear. The Pavilion of Fear will be a mobile meeting space in Chemnitz's urban space before and during the exhibition to encourage a conscious examination of this basic human as well as diffuse and ambivalent feeling.

What other collaborations with international partners have developed in preparation for this year?

Networking with other European Capitals of Culture is very valuable. The European Capitals of Culture program will be 40 years old this year - in April, representatives from around 60 previous and future Capitals of Culture were guests here and adopted the Chemnitz White Paper. A manifesto with 40 concrete proposals for redesigning the European Capitals of Culture program. The results of the work are now being presented in Brussels. The European Capital of Culture community is a great asset.

But people living in Chemnitz also contribute to its international character. A large Ukrainian community lives here, for example, and many refugees have also arrived here - more than in Leipzig or Dresden. Many are involved in Capital of Culture projects, for example through a choir. Everyone who lives in Chemnitz should be involved in shaping the city - and that naturally also applies to Ukrainians.

What particularly caught my eye in the program were the items on the #3000 garages. Why garages?

There are around 30,000 garages in Chemnitz that help shape the cityscape. Their social significance is high, as they were built during the GDR era as a result of individual initiative and community involvement. Even today, they are creative biotopes, social places and archives. These garages are typical of an East German city and have undergone a functional transformation. Today, garage courtyard concerts and exhibitions are held there. The garage courtyards as already existing socio-cultural places were thus activated for the Capital of Culture year. Photographer Maria Sturm has also taken portraits of various garage owners. The photographs appear prominently in the windows of stores and bank branches in the cityscape. This puts otherwise unseen makers in the spotlight. t. The motto “C The Unseen” fits well again.

Going one step further - and presenting the historical facts in a somewhat condensed form - it could be argued that without Chemnitz there would be no Leipzig Trade Fair. I am alluding to the exhibition “Treasures and Tragedies - Mining in the Ore Mountains”. Silver and other treasures from the Ore Mountains were mined in the Chemnitz region and traded in Leipzig. Does this connection also appear here?

Of course, people in Chemnitz like to hear that - there are clear connections to Leipzig and Dresden. I'm less fond of the saying: “The money is earned in Chemnitz, traded in Leipzig and squandered in Dresden.” Every city has its own character: the royal seat, the trading city, the industrial city. And of course there was and is culture, work and splendor in all three cities.

What challenges do the cultural institutions in Chemnitz face despite being the Capital of Culture?

Like everywhere else in Germany: funding. Public funds are becoming scarcer, the question is how we can maintain quality and diversity - especially in the independent scene. New structures are needed, such as cooperation and shared use of infrastructure like the Garage Campus, which can be further developed as a venue for the independent scene.

What should artists and museum people definitely not miss in Chemnitz this year?

It's always worth taking a look at the program at chemnitz2025.de . In addition to the aforementioned Realism exhibition at the Gunzenhauser Museum - an absolute must! - I would particularly like to point out the exhibition “The new city - Chemnitz as Karl-Marx-Stadt” in the Schloßbergmuseum of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. It sheds light on GDR urban development and poses the question of a possible Eastern modernism - a topic that is often overlooked. And of course to the Munch exhibition in August in the art collections on Theatherplatz.

You can find an article on the #3000 Garages project here .