The decision has been made: Chemnitz has made it onto the shortlist in the race for the title of “European Capital of Culture 2025”.

<Mayor Barbara Ludwig: “Dear people of Chemnitz, this is a huge opportunity for our city: We can become the European Capital of Culture in 2025. As of today, we have come a big step closer to this goal.

The European jury has recognised the potential of our city and would like to see more of us. It has asked us to submit a second detailed application book by June 2020: with concretely elaborated projects, a detailed programme for 2025, an invitation to Europe that is so convincing that it cannot be turned down.

So let us together transform the joy after the first jury decision into energy and take the next steps with verve. Becoming European Capital of Culture in 2025 would mean making Chemnitz known internationally as a modern city with a great industrial and cultural heritage, free space for creative people, design possibilities for future generations, ideas for a coexistence of a diverse urban society and an exciting cultural region. This would also mean turning on the turbo for an urban development that benefits everyone.

That is why I would like to encourage you to get involved and participate. It is not the comparison with larger cities in Saxony that moves us forward. Our eyes now go to Marseille, to Plovdiv, to Pilsen, to Galway, to Aarhus, to Liverpool, to Linz, to Wroclaw… Because Chemnitz has what it takes to be a European city. And we will continue to work hard for it.

I would like to say thank you after this first successfully taken hurdle! Thank you to all the masterminds, the movers and shakers, to all the people who have lived this application, with boundless commitment, passion and the unshakable belief that Chemnitz can be European Capital of Culture in 2025.

If we get together to think big, to tackle the seemingly impossible, Chemnitz has the chance to become a winner in many ways.