Chemnitz is a city of makers. Evidence of this can be found in the city’s history at all times – and the application process was also supported from the very beginning by many tireless actors, volunteers and civic initiatives.

It is no coincidence that the application focuses on making, on DIY, on the “artist in you”, on self-taught artists, on the creative process.

Making together is the step towards each other in a European society that increasingly shies away from constructive exchange in discussions. Especially in Eastern Europe, the brutality and speed of change in the last 30 years has left many injuries that linger in the bent. Thus, countless people have withdrawn from political debate. While extreme political opinions grow louder, such as in Chemnitz in August 2018, the centre remains silent. Chemnitz2025 wants to encourage this “silent middle” to get involved again: in the neighbourhoods, in the cities, in the regions of Europe. Because the challenge in Europe needs active Europeans: in the fight against climate change, in dealing with demographic change, in containing the social and economic consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Chemnitz2025 will fill the public spaces between the buildings of the city and the region, will take place where the people are. But Chemnitz2025 will also rediscover place, the city on the river or the so-called detached places that many people pass by but do not notice, do not see. The programme calls on people to recognise their own talents and to contribute them. There are four major programme lines for this purpose.

Eastern State of Mind

Chemnitz is an Eastern European city in a Western European country. In the city, the experience of cohesion in difficult times lives on just as much as the fragility of circumstances. The Eastern state of mind is characterised by the people’s doer mentality and sense of community, manifested in design from architecture to everyday objects, in improvised solutions or artistic work.

Places where precisely this history still exists in secret are the garages. Long since outgrown by modern car bodies, they are workshops, storage rooms, refuges of very private stories.

Chemnitz2025 opens up 3000 garages as individual workshops of interaction. They become meeting places for citizens, open minds and hearts, uncover secrets, evoke memories, tell stories.

e.g. the garage as a treasure chest – a theatre of lost property

Garage owners from all over Europe open the doors to their private, secret world. Together with the Chemnitz Puppet Theatre, they will develop small puppet theatre pieces from their personal lost property and stories, which will be performed on the stage of a mobile garage. At the same time, the objects and stories will be collected via Instagram to tell digital stories as well.

e.g. the garage of the autodidacts

Following the example of the Bauhaus, a design and art school for young, enthusiastic people is being created in cooperation with the Bauhaus University Weimar. Depending on their interests and skills, they can take part in an artistic education programme in the Garage of Autodidacts – optionally in the areas of materials and tools, colours and compositions or cultural management. The teachers are also self-taught.

Generous Neighbours

Europe’s open borders policy makes us all neighbours. And what this means for our democratic values such as respect and tolerance is something we can experience every day in our immediate living environment. Although we live next door to each other, we have very different opinions, hobbies, rituals and preferences. Nevertheless, we come together at the doorstep – through small talk, the exchange of experiences, doing things together. That is what holds our society together.

z. For example, the parade of apple trees

Following the principle of the edible city, 4000 apple trees in 2000 different varieties will stretch across the city, each one cared for and sponsored by a local patron, who will also receive international guests and host cultural events. Artists from different countries will create a parallel art trail called “WE PARAPOM”, so that the parade transcends property and social boundaries. Finally, thanks to the interactive gaming app “Go Apple go”, based on Pokémon Go, there will be an educational aspect that focuses on sustainability, resources and migration. Various events from the Apple Blossom Festival to the Slow Food Movement with the best apple pie recipes will accompany the theme.