For the 14th time now, microprojects are being funded as part of Chemnitz 2025. The jury selected 19 funding projects from 60 applications submitted in this round.
The successful microproject funding initiative has been supporting civic engagement in Chemnitz and the region for several years now. Funding is provided for non-commercial, creative projects that expand the Capital of Culture year through new formats and encounters, thereby strengthening the vision of a creative and vibrant Chemnitz. A jury selects the most convincing project ideas. The applicants receive up to 3,000 euros for the realisation.
The final round of calls for proposals for the Capital of Culture year will follow in spring 2025, offering individuals, associations and initiatives another chance to realise small creative ideas and help shape the city.
The following project ideas will be funded in the 14th microproject round:
Intercultural cabaret: "Lachkräftemangel", KarmaStadt, premiere
The intercultural cabaret is intended to create satirical encounters, break down prejudices and use the power of humour to contribute to tolerant, cosmopolitan coexistence. The debut programme, "Lachkräftemangel", navigates through the paradoxical abysses of the bureaucratic everyday life of immigrants, past gaps in personnel, around human and institutional hurdles and straight through the cocoa.
Initiator/Applicant: Veronika Ahnert and Ahmed Béjaoui
"When a text and an image collide ..."
An artistic and multimedia dialogue format that invites cross-generational participation. Secondary school students from the BSZ für Wirtschaft I transfer texts by authors from the Chemnitz Authors' Association into a visual realisation. Over the course of the school year, works will be created that will be presented for the first time in April/May 2025 (BSZ school building and Chemnitz "eins" youth hostel).
Initiator/Applicant: Thomas Grieser / Chemnitz Authors' Association
The story of Moritz Lippmann, his furniture store and his family
A shop window exhibition in a former furniture store in Mühlenstraße commemorates the Chemnitz entrepreneur Moritz Lippmann. The exhibition tells the story from the establishment of the furniture store in 1932 to its expropriation in 1953 and shows a piece of almost forgotten city history. Expected start is the end of 2024.
Initiator/Applicant: Adrian Lippmann
Joint painting of the pedestrian and cycle path near Falkeplatz
An approximately 100 metre long section of the pedestrian and cycle path in the park between Falkeplatz and Fabrikstraße is to be painted together. The aim is to create a large, colourful, long stretch of pavement on which you can walk and marvel, adding a splash of colour to the city. The river, the spring bloomers and the newly settled herons will inspire the open painting campaign, in which passers-by, interested parties and volunteers can participate. Spring 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: Philipp Reiss
Nature and Kneipp garden as a place for (environmental) education and encounters
The Hutholz garden is home to many herbs, vegetables and flowers as well as little-known (medicinal) plants. Several times a month, herbal and medicinal plant tours provide tips on the processing, mode of action and preparation of tinctures and tea blends. A colouring book for children, a garden library, a barefoot path and more are being created. The neighbourhood is invited to come together by learning and trying things out together.
Initiator:in/Applicant:in: Heike Priebe / Kneipp-Verein Bad Chemnitz e.V.
Of golden suns and snowdrops
"Of golden suns and snowdrops" invites people in Chemnitz to get to know various European traditions around Candlemas (2 February) and reinterpret them together. With workshops such as candle making and lampion design, music, stories and a shared meal, the participants create new connections and promote dialogue. The highlight is the presentation of the workshop results and a joint peace dance in front of the Karl Marx monument. Cooperation partners are the German-French Society, the Ent_Rüstet formation, the German-Polish Society, the Mozart Society, the Association of Friends of Historical Crafts and the Chemnitz Folk Association. Implementation on 2 February 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: Birgit Leibner / Bürgerhaus City e.V.
Meeting place WollGarage
The WollGarage is a meeting place for anyone interested in wool - whether knitting, crocheting, embroidering, felting or spinning. According to the motto "You show me your work, I'll show you mine!", like-minded people can exchange ideas here. Inspired by the Capital of Culture project #3000 Garages and the Erzgebirge tradition of "Hutzing", a place is being created in a former garage in Chemnitz/Borna-Heinersdorf that promotes joint handicrafts and social interaction.
Initiator/Applicant: Sabine Hochmuth
"On the road together" - a story festival for children
At the "Gemeinsam unterwegs" story festival, around 100 children from Chemnitz can go on a journey in the city library for one day during the winter holidays. Four children's book authors each present a book about a journey; the children then put their own story of a real or invented journey on paper. Finally, the children present the results of their creative writing and work to each other. The reading day is 19 February.
Initiator/Applicant: Katharina Bendixen
Lichtenstein's Pohoda Garage
A garage becomes a concert stage in Lichtenstein. Local and regional bands and musicians from Trenčín in Slovakia, the European Capital of Culture 2026, which is once again organising a garage stage with its Pohoda Festival, will perform. Concerts will take place every month during the Capital of Culture year. The Lichtenstein association Voice of Art and the Musikverein Lichtenstein e.V. are supporting the project with technology and expertise.
Initiator/Applicant: Nicole Schubert / Kulturpalais Lichtenstein
C the Green: Chemnitz unites for a clean future
Citizens come together for a joint environmental project to remove rubbish from their neighbourhoods - with a focus on green spaces around bodies of water to promote environmental and water protection. The activities offer space for discussion, exchange and encounters between the participants
Initiator/Applicant: Ruben Otto
Language Culture 2025
The "Sprachkultur 2025" project aims to familiarise hearing visitors to the European Capital of Culture with the language and culture of deaf people while at the same time showcasing the diversity of people with hearing impairments and their biographies and life achievements. A travelling exhibition will be created that can be seen at various locations during the Capital of Culture year.
Initiator/Applicant: Karola Tiffe-Mey / Chemnitz Centre for the Deaf
The Chemnitz 2025 Dance
The Chemnitz dance school Köhler-Schimmel has set out to develop a Chemnitz 2025 dance. It should be simple, easy to learn, danceable by all generations and appealing. Workshops and performances are planned over the course of the Capital of Culture year, in intervention spaces, several times a month from March to October 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: ADTV Tanzschule Köhler-Schimmel / on behalf of Veronique Anke & Linda Herrmann
Chemnitz types a collective poem
Performative participatory event: A typewriter invites you to write collectively - on a "Collective Poem" about the city's history as experienced by passers-by on this day. Chance counts just as much as togetherness. Anyone can type whatever they want, in any language and without any obligation to make sense. The characters fill a roll of paper several metres long in the typewriter. At the end of the performance, the work is read aloud. Realisation in spring/summer 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: Lucia Biller
International street art project for young people from Marienberg and Most
Young people from Marienberg and the Czech twin town of Most come together in the street art project organised by the Kultur & Natur Erzgebirge e.V. association. Under the guidance of the Czech street artist Lukáš Zadek Brožovský, the young people will develop a feel for the use of spray paint and the effect of their pictures during a free one-day workshop. Realisation March/April 2025 The young people's work should then remain visible for at least the duration of the Capital of Culture year.
Initiator/Applicant: Ronny Kienert
Freiberg Children's Cathedral
The "Freiberg Children's Cathedral" is a project for children that allows them to experience church spaces as places of cultural education. Children can discover the church space in Freiberg's St Peter's Church in a playful and creative way. Formats such as a children's church night, art and craft projects, musical programmes and meeting days are planned. Highlights include an opening ceremony and a closing party with a lantern parade. Children are actively involved in designing the cathedral and contribute their ideas to the design. The project will take place from July to August 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: Anne Kopp / Children Youth Education Centre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Freiberg
Mannl in Motion - Edition Chemnitz 2025
"Mannl in Motion" is an interactive box that makes it possible to create your own stop-motion films with traditional figures from the Ore Mountains. The box contains everything you need: figures, backgrounds with regional motifs and a script. Using a stop-motion app, the films are shot on your own smartphone or a tablet provided and can be set to music with your own voice. A Chemnitz 2025 edition is now being created with images, stories and characters from Chemnitz.
Initiator:in/Applicant:in: Nils Kochan
C the Unseen - the Chemnitz 2025 hip-hop song
Lichtenstein is producing the hip-hop track "C the Unseen" for the Capital of Culture 2025. Together with Holger Wettstein, young people and hip-hop enthusiasts are creating the lyrics, music and choreography. The premiere is planned for the opening ceremony in January. The young people are involved in all aspects of music production and choreography.
Initiator:in/Applicant:in: Nicole Schubert / Kulturpalais Lichtenstein
The Spinning Tree
"The Spinning Tree" is a collaborative art and craft project that connects Chemnitz, Olbernhau and Sardinia (Italy). Children and young people are playfully introduced to the traditional art of weaving and the craft of making toys. They learn about the cultural traditions and sustainable values of these crafts through manual skills, material science and the appreciation of local fibres such as wool and flax. Workshops and activities are planned for spring 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: Karl and Marta / LOGGE & ROMANI
Chemnitz is also agriculture. A guest at the Guidohof
Various workshops show what it takes to bake bread - from the field to the tasting. Visitors will learn about the soil market in the east at the farmland workshop, the grain technology workshop will provide insights into the technical processes during harvesting and processing and in the bakery, guests will not only learn about the steps involved in baking bread, but will also find out what organic farming means in the Chemnitz region. The events will take place in autumn 2024, spring 2025 and summer 2025.
Initiator/Applicant: Hannah Gläser / Kulturland cooperative
