In 2025, the Saxon city of Chemnitz, together with the surrounding region, will be the "European Capital of Culture", inviting visitors on a voyage of discovery to the east of Germany. You can experience pioneering projects in the midst of a fascinating historical heritage.
The city of Chemnitz (in GDR times: Karl-Marx-Stadt), which is characterized by great tradition and many upheavals, is connected to Zwickau, where the composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was born, and the neighboring region, which is also extremely scenic. Here, in the south-west of Saxony, a significant contribution was made to Germany's industrial development (especially in the textile, mechanical engineering, railroad and automotive industries!) and the Erzgebirge/Krušnohorí mining region has even been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019. At the same time, art and culture flourished, as evidenced by top-class museums and unique architecture. In this fascinating eastern German region, you can experience an impressive industrial history in an inspiring dialog with beautiful castles from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods as well as theater, music and fine arts. The contrast with the present is also incredibly exciting, as the vibrant city of Chemnitz has developed into an important high-tech location with an excellent research landscape in recent years.
In 2025, Chemnitz will be the European Capital of Culture together with 38 municipalities from Central Saxony, the Ore Mountains and the Zwickau region. The extensive and multifaceted program has the motto "C the Unseen" - with 150 projects and more than 1,000 events making the previously unseen, undiscovered and hidden visible. Festivals, exhibitions, theater, performances, sports, culinary delights, workshops and events along the five program lines "European Makers of Democracy", "Eastern European Mentality", "Generous Neighborhood", "Makers²" and "On the Move!" will attract visitors to the highly interesting Capital of Culture region.
European Capital of Culture Chemnitz © Ernesto Uhlmann Radar Studios
"European Realities"
At the Gunzenhauser Museum, whose unique collection of works by Otto Dix is world-renowned, the spectacular exhibition "European Realities" is dedicated to the diverse realist movements that were visible almost everywhere in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. It tells of poverty and misery, of the economic boom and cultural prosperity, of scientific and technological progress, of the big city and nightlife, emancipation and diversity. The exhibition includes artists from northern, central, south-eastern, southern and western European countries and presents artistic networks that transcend national borders. It follows on from Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub's eponymous presentation of New Objectivity from 1925, which, after Mannheim and Dresden, made a stop at today's Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz in Chemnitz. European Realities combines the local tradition with pan-European realist tendencies. Realism of the 1920s and 1930s not only has many names such as Nuovo Realismo, Realismo mágico, Pittura metafisica, Novecento, Neue Sachlichkeit, Neoklassizismus, Magischer Realismus, Neorealisme, Nové realismy and many more, it also has its roots in various countries and has many faces. With around 300 works from 20 countries, the exhibition shows not only a European panorama, but also how artistic approaches spread and develop through the transfer and migration of ideas.
April 27 to August 10, 2025
William Roberts, Les Routiers, 1931, oil on canvas, National Museum NI, Ulster Museum © Estate of John David Roberts. By permission of the Treasury Solicitor, Ulster Museum Collection
"Silver luster & death of the miners"
The "Silberglanz & Kumpeltod" exhibition at the smac - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitzv in turn sheds light on ore mining from both its shiny and dark sides: the show in the listed museum building, which was designed by Erich Mendelsohn, one of the most important architects of modernism, and opened in 1930 as the Schocken department store, presents objects from the Bronze Age to the 21st century and provides an insight into this traditional profession, which had an eminent influence on the economy and culture of the Ore Mountains. With 380 exhibits on around 1000 square meters, the mining exhibition brings to light what went on underground for thousands of years. It thus interprets the claim of the Capital of Culture year C the Unseen in a very special way, as only insiders knew and still know what really happened in the tunnels and passages. The exhibition focuses on the Ore Mountains, which stretch along the German-Czech border south of Chemnitz. This old mining region is particularly well researched archaeologically and historically.
until June 29, 2025
"Edvard Munch. Fear"
Based on the themes that permeate Edvard Munch's art, the high-caliber exhibition "Edvard Munch. Angst" at the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz revolves around fear, loneliness and illness as well as Munch's stay in Chemnitz (1905) and the ongoing confrontation with his childhood. In parallel, contemporary positions by artists such as Marina Abramović, Monika Bonvicini, Michael Morgner, Osmar Osten, Neo Rauch and Andy Warhol will enter into a targeted dialog with Munch's works.
August 10 to November 2, 2025
"Edvard Munch. Angst": Edvard Munch, Vampire, 1895, lithograph, colored by hand, Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, Photo: Medienzentrum Wuppertal
Tales of Transformation
As the "Saxon Manchester", Chemnitz gave the starting signal for industrialization in Saxony, experienced rapid growth and finally deindustrialization - a profound challenge, but also an opportunity for reinvention. In the exhibition "Tales of Transformation", the excellent Chemnitz Industrial Museum now compares the development of former industrial hotspots: In addition to Chemnitz, it highlights Mulhouse in France, Tampere in Finland, Gabrovo in Bulgaria, Łódź in Poland and - of course! - Manchester in the north of England. The highly topical show examines, among other things, what impulses for the future come from these cities and what they can learn from each other.
April 25 to November 16, 2025
#3000Garages
With the #3000Garages project, Chemnitz 2025 is delving into the topic of Eastern identity in an exciting way. It shows the approximately 30,000 garages in Chemnitz, most of which were built during the GDR era, as living archives, creative spaces and meeting places. In artistic projects, the individual stories of the garage users are conveyed and creatively transformed against the backdrop of Chemnitz's city history, while festivals, workshops and art events activate the garage courtyards as socio-cultural community spaces. In the legendary "Stern Garages", one of the oldest surviving high-rise garages in Germany, the Museum for Saxon Vehicles located there is also home to "Ersatzteillager", a spatial installation of borrowed garage objects. It was created by Martin Maleschka, who was recently awarded the German Prize for Monument Protection 2024 for his photo documentation of the GDR's architectural heritage.
#3000Garages: Spare parts warehouse project, collection campaign with Martin Maleschka © Peter Rossner#3000Garages: Spare parts warehouse project, collection campaign with Martin Maleschka © Peter Rossner
PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail
The largest project of Chemnitz 2025 is the unique PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail: the works of renowned international, national and Saxon artists will create a unique exhibition in public space that connects Chemnitz and the other 38 cities and municipalities of the Capital of Culture region. "Everything comes from the mountain" is the narrative of this captivating project, as 850 years of mining have deeply shaped the landscapes around Chemnitz - the Ore Mountains, Central Saxony and the Zwickau region. At the PURPLE PATH, the installations and sculptures tell the story of people, crafts and industry and invite visitors to discover these stories. Works by Tony Cragg, Nevin Aladağ, Richard Long, Uli Aigner and Friedrich Kunath, among others, can be experienced.
Purple Path, Trashstone 689, Wilhelm Mundt in Freiberg, photo Johannes Richter
Cross-border "European Peace Ride"
The application book for the title of "European Capital of Culture" was brought to Berlin in 2020 by cycling enthusiasts and presented to the jury there. This resulted in a major cross-border project: the European Peace Ride. As part of Chemnitz 2025, the fifth edition of this special peace ride is now taking place, which is not a cycling race but a cultural and sporting community project and is developing European appeal with around 200 participants across national borders.
September 9 to 13, 2025
World premiere of "Rummelplatz"
A sensational world premiere is taking place at Chemnitz Opera House: The contemporary opera "Rummelplatz", a commissioned work, is based on Werner Bräunig's critically engaging social novel of the same name, adapted for the stage by composer Ludger Vollmer and Jenny Erpenbeck (libretto), who was awarded the world-renowned International Booker Prize in 2024. To accompany this, Chemnitz Opera has launched a participatory international writing workshop program that uses methods of autobiographical writing
Premiere: September 20, 2025
Other programme priorities of Chemnitz 2025 include the "Makers, Business & Arts" project, which operates at the interface between creative professionals, business and art and promotes the development of nine maker hubs (for example in the Augustusburg fiefdom) as creative locations; the "Living Neighbourhood" project, which deals intensively with sustainable urban development and also includes tree planting; and the "European Workshop for Culture and Democracy", a broad-based participation project for local stakeholders:civil society, which also includes cooperation between Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.
https://chemnitz2025.de
