What city would dare to call itself "unseen"? Chemnitz has, and this year at the latest we will notice in Germany and all across Europe: Those who have not yet been to Chemnitz, who do not know the city, have missed a lot.
In 2025, everyone should really take a look. Chemnitz – the city of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Stefan Heym, Marianne Brandt, Kraftklub, Katarina Witt; the city where Matthias Schweighöfer did his university entrance qualification; where many actors, including Ulrich Mühe, started treading the boards – and 38 municipalities here in the region have been crowned European Capital of Culture 2025. After fifteen years, it is wonderful that a town and region in Germany have been selected again. I really am delighted. Please accept my warm congratulations!
"C the Unseen" is the motto you have chosen as European Capital of Culture and I know there is a huge amount of cultural diversity to see and discover here – in Chemnitz, Central Saxony, Zwickau and the Ore Mountains. What is more, and this is the second aspect of this year as European Capital of Culture, people who have thus far not been in the spotlight or perhaps feel unseen are to be given an outlet.
It is this twofold meaning of the motto that makes this year as European Capital of Culture into something particularly special. Yes, visitors are to enjoy and discover art and culture when they come here. However, they themselves are also to take centre stage, play an active role. They are invited to join in, to engage. They can find out what it is like to get involved. To be seen and to bring about change.
For me, what is decisive is that the year as European Capital of Culture brings people together who would otherwise have little to do with one another. That is precisely what we so urgently need at this time. So that we can rediscover curiosity about and trust in one another. Find a shared language once more. If we are to tackle the major challenges that our country and Europe face, we need a strong society that believes in itself. We need people who are convinced: We can bring about change – and we want to create something together.
Chemnitz has dealt with the challenges it has faced, has experienced upheaval. The very fact that the city has been renamed twice – known as Karl-Marx-Stadt for 37 years before returning to the name Chemnitz – is emblematic of the city’s experience of certainties being shaken at the roots, of ruptures and rebirth. It is no coincidence that people here, where it’s quicker to get to Prague than to Berlin, call Chemnitz an Eastern European city in a Western European country.
However, Chemnitz, as we know all too well, has also had bitter experiences with extremism. I am thinking first and foremost about the year 2018. All of a sudden, demonstrations by the far right were what shaped the image of your city all across Germany. I remember coming to visit you that very year, in November 2018. During the discussion as so many of us enjoyed a cup of coffee in the former Schocken department store, I said that we need dialogue, but that dialogue can only be the start. "For the differences, contrasts and conflicts remain." We need to respond to this maturely and remember: Ultimately, what connects us is greater than what separates us. That is why we need to strengthen what connects us.
That is also the priority now in your year as European Capital of Culture. What we need to do now is learn from differences and together build a pathway to the future. To do this, we need to involve everyone, also those who are fed up with the public disputes and those who have withdrawn. In other words, all those who care about the future of their city and our country. I firmly believe that where the powerful democratic centre of our country carves out space for itself, there is no room for those who scorn democracy.
This holds true here in Germany, but also beyond our borders. Working together with our neighbouring countries and with the other European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica-Gorizia, we want to show that Europe is and remains unity in diversity. With what we share being so much greater than the differences. We will experience that this year here in Chemnitz through many projects.
The printed programme of the European Capital of Culture 2025 is quite a volume, yet its wonderful simplicity shines through. The range of events really is impressive: garages are transformed into ateliers, people gather for a picnic with records in their baskets or for the European Capital of Culture Marathon, meet at a toymakers or a knitting festival or dance hip‑hop together. The PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail links Chemnitz with the partner municipalities round about showcasing sculptures and installations by well-regarded artists, including Dresden-born Olaf Holzapfel who I encounter every day, as one of his pieces is currently on display in the gallery at Schloss Bellevue. I would also like to mention the mining exhibition Treasures and Tragedies, an exhibition of which I am delighted to be patron. I even managed to contribute an exhibition piece: the last piece of black coal mined in Germany, presented to me by miners in a moving ceremony in Bottrop in the Ruhr area in December 2018. This very piece of coal is now part of the exhibition and will then be on display in the Haus der Geschichte. Just a piece of coal but it evokes an era that shaped landscapes, work and people and is emblematic of change and new beginnings.
There are a host of events ahead of us in this European Capital of Culture year, a host of ways to get involved. Some things will only become visible when people come together to create them. However, Chemnitz, the European Capital of Culture, will send a signal of this very togetherness, a signal that cannot go unseen, a signal that we in Germany and indeed Europe so urgently need.
It is my ardent hope that many, many visitors will sense this palpable enthusiasm, add to it their own and take it to every corner of our country. I wish Chemnitz every success as European Capital of Culture 2025!