Timetable Set for Capital of Culture Application Finale

On 28 October 2020, the decision as to who will be named European Capital of Culture 2025 will be made - The university supports the city of Chemnitz’s application with all its might

The city of Chemnitz is applying for the title European Capital of Culture 2025 (Chemnitz 2025) and is now in the final and decisive phase of its application.

On 22 October 2020, the jury will get a direct impression of the city and its initiatives in the context of the application during a live digital inspection ("city visit"). In three thematic blocks, the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and the President of Chemnitz University of Technology, Prof. Dr. Gerd Strohmeier, among others, will be interviewed in a closed circle about Chemnitz 2025. "We are in a very decisive week with regard to the application for the Capital of Culture and will do everything we can, give our all and do our best to make the Chemnitz dream of becoming European Capital of Culture a reality", said the President.

The final decision on the title is expected on 28 October. To get to that point, it was a long road in the two-stage and competitive process for the city of Chemnitz, which the university strongly supported from the very beginning.

Chemnitz University of Technology has been involved from the very beginning with numerous initiatives

Chemnitz University of Technology is represented in the steering group as well as in the program advisory board for the Capital of Culture application. The President of Chemnitz University of Technology, Prof. Dr. Gerd Strohmeier, is a member of the steering group. Members of the program advisory board are Prof. Dr. Bernadette Malinowski, holder of Professorship of Modern German and Comparative Literature, and Prof. Dr. Christoph Fasbender, holder of the Professorship of History of German Literature and Language at Chemnitz University of Technology.

In addition, Chemnitz University of Technology has already supported the initial application steps with various initiatives. These include the clear commitment to support the application and the emphasis on the application as a particularly important common goal at the first joint meeting of the entire university president’s office and the entire city hall leadership of the city of Chemnitz (german article) in October 2017.

Furthermore, representatives of the Chemnitz University of Technology took part in the idea-gathering conference STAT(D)T KULTUR: Chemnitz 2025 (german article) in November 2017 to exchange views on, among other things, the cultural strategy for Chemnitz 2025.

In addition, a junior professorship in European Culture and Civil Society (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Laux) was established in the winter semester 2018/2019, among other things to support Chemnitz 2025.

The exhibition "Gestures - yesterday, today, the day after tomorrow", which was shown in Berlin and Frankfurt after Chemnitz, was also part of the Capital of Culture application. The Chair of the Professorship of German Linguistics (Prof. Dr. Ellen Fricke) at Chemnitz University of Technology cooperated with the Chemnitz Museum of Industry and the Ars Electronica Futurelab (Linz) on the "MANUACT" project sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

 In addition, the university published a series of interviews with international students, in which the students were asked about Chemnitz culture and explicitly also about the application for the Capital of Culture. University employees also provided information about their wishes regarding Chemnitz 2025 (german article), among other things in interviews for the magazine “Chemnitzer Macher” and the communication campaign "Die Stadt bin ich." (“I am the city” – german article).

In addition, students and employees became involved in the Chemnitz 2025 micro-project program: This included the publication of the first issue of the student magazine RABBAZ (german article) and the Fahrradkino Chemnitz (Chemnitz Bicycle Cinema – german article), in which Maria Kreußlein, assistant in the research group General & Industrial Psychology, was one of the leading contributors. Kreußlein also successfully participated in the Capital of Culture initiative “Nimm Platz” (“Take a Seat”) to beautify public space and is implementing her project “Fahrradservicestation” (Bicycle Service Station).

The university accompanied the finale of the first round of applications with numerous social media activities and a video clip in which students and researchers from Albania, Bulgaria, France, and the Czech Republic symbolically cross their fingers for the city and express their wishes and hopes in connection with the title.

After the submission of the first application book (Bid Book) at the end of September 2019, the presentation team from Chemnitz also accompanied four people with strong university ties on 10 December 2019, and supported the application before the European jury (german article).

Comprehensive support also in the second application step

With the submission of the final second application book (Bid Book II) on 21 September 2020, which explains the main program points and the concept behind the Cultural Year, the application process is now in the home stretch. This second part of the process has also been significantly supported by Chemnitz University of Technology and many of its members and relatives.

These include, for example, the “Literarisches Quintett” (“Literary Quintet”) at Chemnitz University of Technology, in which Prof. Dr. Bernadette Malinowski, Angela Malz (Director of the Chemnitz University Library) and university graduate Christian Mayer (editor in Essen) took part and which was dedicated to Chemnitz 2025.

In addition, students and employees participated once again with four micro-projects (https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/tu/pressestelle/aktuell/10181/en). These include The Flying Armchair, an open reading stage, a project for autonomous driving by the T. U. C. Racing Team, the participation of the Chair of General and Biopsychology at Chemnitz University of Technology in the project “I See It Differently - The Festival of Differing Opinions” and the art project MicroArts (german article) by university student Johannes Moosbühler.

In addition, students at the university discussed ideas for the Capital of Culture application from a student perspective in the workshop “Playground – What does your future in Chemnitz look like?”.

Students and employees also got involved in sports. This year, students and employees on the team of the Lauf-KulTour 2.0 covered the approximately 1,300 kilometer distance to Chemnitz’s twin city of Düsseldorf as ambassadors of Chemnitz 2025. Athletes from Lauf-KulTour with the support of students and researchers from Chemnitz University of Technology started an additional walking and cycling tour last Sunday, 18 October 2020, in order to run or ride on four routes, each with a sign of the sequence 2-0-2-5. In addition, members and relatives of Chemnitz University of Technology were among the cyclists who drove the application documents (Bid Book II) to Berlin for submission.

Numerous contributions from Chemnitz University of Technology and joint activities with the social media channels of Chemnitz 2025 complement and flank the second part of the application round.

In a current project, 30 Chemnitz residents read Bid Book II as a podcast. Among the speakers is Prof. Dr. Matthias Niedobitek, holder of the Jean Monnet Professorship for European Integration at Chemnitz University of Technology. He will read the final part from the bid book. It will hopefully close with a happy ending for Chemnitz on 28 October 2020.

Matthias Fejes
20.10.2020

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