LIVING NEIGHBOURHOOD
Planting, caring and celebrating together
Neighbours planted, cared for and celebrated apple trees of over 600 varieties. They did this together at planting festivals, with care tips and tricks in educational programmes and in the kitchens of the city and region. The aim of this project was to bring joyful fruit to everyone. The focus was on Chemnitz's commitment to a fertile and sustainable living environment.
Dr Julia Naunin
Project management
Yvette Glaß
Specialist planner
Tina Langklotz
Project coordinator
Lara Paul
Working student
Karl-Benedikt Schmidt
Working student
Neighbours lend a hand
Various organisations took part in two planting festivals in Chemnitz and in 38 municipalities and communities in the Capital of Culture region. Educational programmes flanked the plantings with free fruit tree pruning courses, workshops, videos and even the opportunity to weave together vole baskets. Experienced plant experts and committed people gave tips and tricks and the neighbourhood learned from each other by working together. In addition, the 2025 urban community celebrated apples and other fruits, bees and the rich urban greenery in Chemnitz with culinary delights, music, excursions and many other opportunities.
People in companies, day-care centres, home and allotment garden associations, retirement homes and schools looked after the currently still young apple tree babies as a living neighbourhood. For at least twelve years, they will ensure that the harvest from the planted trees is available to the many makers in good time, increasing the desire and appetite for even more apples.
Goodbye winter, heat hurts?
We are aware of water shortages in the city and region. We feel climate change near and far. We learn new figures, facts and witness reports every day. The City of Chemnitz provides information and takes action - for example, green façades are being promoted in Chemnitz, intervention areas were opened as places for people to spend time together during the Capital of Culture year and Chemnitz has had an energy team since 2010, which is responsible for regular certification with the European Energy Award in Gold.
Focus: Apple trees
Current developments call for foresight and concrete community action on the ground: Living Neighbourhood was created in an extensive participatory process with various movers and shakers from administration, education and society. The people of Chemnitz showed great interest in deciding together how the idea of planting several hundred apple trees, which was outlined in the Capital of Culture bid, could be realised. This unique participatory project grew and flourished in Chemnitz and in the Capital of Culture region with other partner organisations from business and culture. Together, the partnerships trialled care and transformation in the constantly changing living space.
Committed people, those with experience and practical knowledge and experts - so-called pomologists - set out on the trail of cultivating old resistant apple varieties: they cultivated the heritage and at the same time took care of long-term perspectives in a neighbourly way.
Apple culture
The apple is an accessible fruit of joy and inspiration: Myths, pathos formulas and wrangling apples are well known in the past and present, the youngest members of society love the apple and grandmas and grandpas possibly cook the best compote. In international cuisines, the apple is a delicacy in both liquid and solid form - the apple has a strong future.
