In the volunteer editorial team, volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Bettina lives in Neukirchen in the Ore Mountains and works in the volunteer editorial team. Bettina has been a volunteer since 2024 and contributes her valuable voluntary experience to the European Capital of Culture gGmbH. A former bank clerk, she previously worked as a hardware and software developer.
A very special event took place at the Hartmannfabrik on 6 November 2025
THE SPONSOR THANK YOU EVENT. We volunteers supported this event, be it by welcoming around 100 guests from 45 companies with welcoming words, at the cloakroom or by creatively designing a "sponsor puzzle".
It was a special event for me, as I wanted to see how many and which sponsors and supporters had contributed to the success of the Capital of Culture Year 2025 in Chemnitz.
It was a very nice celebration in which the great gratitude for the successful Capital of Culture year was expressed, for example in a short video broadcast by the Saxon Prime Minister Mr Michael Kretschmer or the speech by the Mayor of Chemnitz Mr Sven Schulze. This was followed by further speeches thanking the public authorities, sponsors and supporters for their support. The special thing about the Capital of Culture year was that the people themselves helped to shape the programme and that the response to the various offers - such as culture, sport, art, etc. - was so enormous.
As an example of this, three of more than 260 micro-projects were presented on stage, which were made possible thanks to the support of the sponsors and which proved the initial sceptics wrong.
Throughout the evening, images and impressions of the Capital of Culture 2025 were shown, which were met with much applause and also showed how successfully the surrounding area of Chemnitz was involved! The PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail, which connects Chemnitz and 38 towns and municipalities in the surrounding region, is a particularly good example of how successfully this has been achieved.
The Managing Directors of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH, Ms Andrea Pier and Mr Stefan Schmidtke, also gave a brief preview of how things will continue next year: Proven formats will remain - for example the Free Walking Tour, the "Dancing Neighbours" project, the Makerhubs in and around Chemnitz, the Maker Advent, the Park Summer, the Kosmos Festival and others.
At the same time, they combined this with a huge thank you and also the request and wish for further support.
The evening ended with a contribution from the "Dancing Neighbours" and a get-together with delicious food, where there was another opportunity to make new contacts and talk about shared experiences.
