Showcase
On this page, the actors of the TU Chemnitz and their projects present what 2025 at the TU Chemnitz will look like in concrete terms and which impulses from the university will echo into the Capital of Culture.
Like the commitment within the university, the page is growing and is constantly being supplemented by new projects. You are welcome to contact the responsible persons to find out more about the goals and designs or to get involved in the projects yourself.
We look forward to your interest and active participation.
Show all projects Planned and current projects Completed Projects
Projects from: 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Swimming the Rhine
2021
2021 (completed project)
Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer / TUClab
Swimming the Rhine 2022
Long-distance swimmer Joseph Heß has reached the finish line in a swimming marathon across the Rhine. In just 25 days, the 34-year-old covered more than 1,200 kilometers from source to mouth, reaching the North Sea near Rotterdam in record time. Along the route, Heß promoted the Capital of Culture 2025. He had started in Switzerland on June 11, 2022. He also puts his action in the service of science. Water samples collected along the way are to provide information about the condition of the Rhine.
Project website: Swimming the Rhine 2022
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Jospeh Heß, Swimming the Rhine
Contact:
Joseph Heß (ZWT/TUClab)
0371 / 531…
joseph.hess@…
Wood, light and sound
2021
2021 (completed project)
Faculty of Natural Science, MAIN
Chemnitz - wood, light and sound
Science and culture are inextricably linked. This is implemented both in the processing of cognition and knowledge within the scientific disciplines and the interaction of the scientific sphere with society. Light and sound are physical phenomena that can be perceived with the human senses and described scientifically, they have shaped the human process of civilization and hence found their way into arts and culture. The project "Chemnitz - wood, light and sound" tries to enter the topic from different perspectives, from natural sciences to engineering sciences to art, and pursues the following sub-goals:
- Focus on a current scientific question "How does the degree of order of materials (e.g. wood) influence the propagation of light and sound waves"
- Consideration of the issue from a theoretical, experimental and application-oriented perspective, e.g. by means of simulations and field studies (in cooperation with running research projects)
- Link to the sphere of experience and interaction in Chemnitz (e.g. with a piece of art on the campus square, a wooded local recreation area or a cultural landscape in the Ore Mountains) and description of the interactions within the scientific disciplines involved
- Opening up the interaction field for other scientific and artistic disciplines and preparing the knowledge transfer process to the general public (public outreach)
Photos: Friedrich Blaudeck, Lucia Sosso, Thomas Blaudeck, Tom Witke // Montage: Thomas Blaudeck
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Chemnitz - wood, light and sound
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Angela Thränhardt (Professur Theoretische Physik - Simulation neuer Materialien)
Prof. Dr. Ulrich T. Schwarz (Professur Experimentelle Sensorik)
Dr. Thomas Blaudeck (Forschungszentrum MAIN)
0371 / 531…
thomas.blaudeck@…
Robotopics
2022
2022 (completed project)
Faculty of Computer Science
Robotopics – Robots in film and literature
Since its beginnings, science fiction has tried to look into the future and has anticipated much with its extrapolations. It's no secret that most of the big technology tycoons from Bezos to Zuckerberg are avowed SF fans. SF is an important source of inspiration and provides models for Silicon Valley's visions of the future and inventions. One of the most popular motifs in SF popular culture is machine people. The lecture tells the story of robots in film and SF literature and questions the desires, hopes, fears or horrors associated with robots. To what extent does this genre influence our ideas about robots?
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Robotopics -
Robotopics -
Robotopics -
Robotopics -
Robotopics
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Florian Röhrbein (Professur Neurorobotik)
0371 / 531…
florian.roehrbein@…
Magic Book
2022
2022 (completed project)
University Library
Magic Book
Within the project of the University Library jointly with the Professorship of Production Systems and Processes, a “haptic” book was fed with changing virtual database contents. Thanks to OCR-technology they are automatically allocated to the opened page and “as if by magic”, the respective text appears in on-going letters. The “Magic Book”, also optically well shaped by manufacture of custom-fit furnishings, was opened to the public on June 20, 2023 and is since then accessible for all visitors of the University Library at the exhibition space on the 1st level. At first, it is fed with contents regarding the history of the library building (“Alte Aktienspinnerei”) and its users.
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Magic Book -
Magic Book -
Magic Book close-up
Contact:
Dr. Wolfgang Lambrecht (Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz)
Professur Produktionssysteme und -prozesse
0371 / 531…
wolfgang.lambrecht@…
City rally
2022
2022 (completed project)
Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer / TUClab
City Rally Chemnitz
The project "City Rally Chemnitz" is an interactive scavenger hunt for visitors to the Capital of Culture, locals and interested citizens. With the help of a smartphone, you puzzle your way from place to place alone or in a group. This is an exciting way to discover Chemnitz. The micro project "Stadtrallye Chemnitz" offers online guided scavenger hunts that serve as city tours by providing interesting information at the individual stops. The puzzle tours guide the participants to exciting and worth seeing places in Chemnitz. In order to get further players need to gather information about the just discovered sight as well as to work their way forward to the next station.
Contact:
Joseph Heß (ZWT/TUClab)
Max Rose (Geschäftsführer audory)
0371 / 531…
joseph.hess@…
Urban-Gate
2022
2022 (completed project)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Urban-Gate
The professorship of Production Systems and Processes is planning to connect different former and current European Capitals of culture via interactive, virtual portals. Together with students of the University of Fine Arts Essen of the course game art & design and the interactive design studio A.MUSE, portals were designed, consisting of a depth camera and a monitor, that allow to capture the movement of the user in front of the portal and to show an anonymized representation on the connected portal. This gesture-based communication is to be used in a playful way in a cultural experiment to build bridges between former and current Capitals of culture or twin cities of Chemnitz. A first prototype was set up at the „Pochen Biennale 2022“ and received a lot of positive feedback. As part of the Capital of culture programme, the portal is planned to be set up in public space for long-term use in 2025.
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Urban-Gate
Contact:
Sven Winkler (Professur Produktionssysteme und -prozesse)
0371 / 531…
sven.winkler@…
Symmetry_ Break
2023
2023 (completed project)
Faculty of Natural Science
Symmetry_Break
This interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and cross-target group project aims to address sudden and unexpected deviations from the familiar and the resulting newness in a broad context. The spectrum ranges from music, theater and linguistics to the natural sciences. A prime example of spontaneous symmetry breaking in physics is the falling of a standing pencil in a random, but then excellent direction; another is the so-called Higgs mechanism, which gives mass to the elementary particles in the standard model.
The aim of the project is to track down symmetry breaks in the broad academic and personal discourse of all members of Chemnitz University of Technology, the cultural institutions of the city of Chemnitz and its inhabitants - from punchlines and melody changes to gender gaps and catalysts to personal life breaks. Lectures from the individual disciplines and discussion rounds (individual and panel) will form the initial framework for recognizing and understanding common and interdisciplinary aspects and incorporating them into the activities of the Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 as an enriching cultural asset.
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Symmetry_Break
Contact:
Martina Hentschel (Professur Theoretische Physik komplexer dynamischer Systeme)
0371 / 531…
martina.hentschel@…
CHAT
2023
2023 (completed project)
Faculty of Humanities
CHAT – a master class on Europe addressing senior grade students from Germany
From September 15th to 17th 2023 the Institute for European Studies and European History is hosting “CHAT” – a master class on Europe addressing senior grade students from Germany. According to the motto “europaweit” students get insights into modern research fields of European Studies and European History. Out of an extensive range of workshops the participants individually compile their schedule of interest to approach “Europe” as an object of research. Ending with a “Karl-Marx-Rallye” the students have the possibility to get to know the city of Chemnitz.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Matthias Niedobitek (Institut für Europäische Studien und Geschichtswiss.)
0371 / 531…
maj-britt.krone@…
Finally art
2022
2022 (completed project)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Finally art in the university site Erfenschlag!?
In the project, the front of a building extension in the university site of Erfenschlag is to be provided with art that takes up the theme of "transition" and thus the geological transition between the Erzgebirge and the Vorerzgebirge depression that runs right through the university district. By installing foldable slats, viewers are invited to move the surface, folding it open and closed. Two pictures are created, in which two artists present the topic "transition" from their point of view. On the one hand, the geological conditions of the rocks that are underneath the viewer are to be illustrated, and on the other hand, a QR code makes it possible to dive into the rock world with an augmented reality show.
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Finally art in the university site Erfenschlag!?
Contact:
Kerstin Lesselt (Künstlerin)
Johann Lucas Lesselt (XR mixed realities)
Susann Hausner (Professur Verbundwerkstoffe und Werkstoffverbunde)
0371 / 531…
susann.hausner@…
Archiving project
2022
2022 (completed project)
Faculty of Humanities
Archiving project
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Martin Clauss
0371 / 531…
martin.clauss@…
Mathematics as cultural heritage
2022-2025
2022 - 2025
Faculty of Mathematics
Lecture Series "Mathematics as a cultural heritage and .."
Inspired by Chemnitz's successful application to become the Capital of Culture 2025, the Faculty of Mathematics and the Evangelisches Forum Chemnitz are organizing the lecture series "Kulturgut Mathematik und ...". In each case, mathematics will be linked to a different area, e.g. religion, politics, art, justice, history, logistics, music, work, etc. The approximately one-hour lectures take place at the relevant locations in Chemnitz, e.g. church, town hall, art collection, court, university, railroad museum, music school, trade union building, etc. The lectures make mathematics "socially acceptable", help to develop interdisciplinary connections, sensitize the city public to the relevance of mathematics and stimulate interesting discussions.
Project website: Lecture Series "Mathematics as a cultural heritage and .."
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Vladimir Shikhman
0371 / 531…
vladimir.shikhman@…
Mathematics Day 2023
2023
2023 (completed project)
Faculty of Mathematics
"Mathematics Day" - not just math, but much, much more
A day that is all about mathematics and shows that math is more than just an unpopular school subject. Mathematics combines theory and practice, thinking and observation, and is involved in so many areas of our lives that it is indispensable as a cultural technique. The main event is the team competition for students in grades 8-9 and 10-12 with participants from (so far) Saxony, the Czech Republic and Poland. While the students are puzzling, there will be training presentations for teachers, trainee teachers and interested members of the public on current topics and developments. There will also be "labs" with special mathematical problems that need to be solved, the popular hands-on mathematics exhibition for all age groups and a networking lunch for registered participants. The main lecture with a socio-cultural theme will be followed by the award ceremony for the best teams.
Project website: "Mathematics Day" - not just math, but much, much more
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"Mathematics Day"
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Philipp Reiter
0371 / 531…
reiter@…
Science podcast „TUCscicast“
2023-2025
2023 - 2025
Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences
Special series „Capital of Culture“ for the science podcast „TUCscicast“
Contact:
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Bischof
0371 / 531…
andreas.bischof@…
The Smoking Chemnitzer:in
2023-2024
2023 - 2024 (completed project)
Faculty of Humanities
The Smoking Chemnitzer:in – Stereotypes and representations in regional arts and crafts
Incense smokers attend the winter in Chemnitz and the Erzgebirge region every year. The fragrant scent of the smoke wafts through the houses and gets people in the mood for Christmas. The majority are male smokers who are displayed decoratively: miners, foresters, academics... Why are there so few female and no queer figures?
As part of a research project in the master's program in Intercultural Communication and Competence, students deal with regional handicrafts, research the representations of women and queer people in Chemnitz and create their own incense figures, which will later be presented in an exhibition.
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The Smoking Chemnitzer:in -
The Smoking Chemnitzer:in
Contact:
Melanie Hühn
melanie.huehn@…
You for Chemnitz
2024
2024
Faculty of Humanities, International Office
Volunteer website - You for Chemnitz
The website ‘Du für Chemnitz!’ serves as a ‘digital notice board’ for advertisements for volunteering positions in (cultural) projects in the Chemnitz area. Users can use the site to contact the initiatives and help shape the Capital of Culture or other cultural projects themselves during the pilot phase. In addition to citizens, the offer is also aimed at (international) students and TUC employees. The aim is to get as many people as possible involved in Capital of Culture projects and other civic endeavours - even far beyond 2025. The website uses synergies with the piloting of service learning programmes at the TUC.
Contact:
Dr. Stefanie Troppmann, Dr. Benny Liebold, Maj-Britt Krone
0371 / 531…
stefanie.troppmann@…
campus art objects
2024
2024
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Recording and digitisation campus art objects
The art objects created in and at our university are a valuable testimony to the respective period and give expression to the spirit of their creation. This art is to be systematically recorded and described in the project. However, it is not just a printed catalog that is to be created. The objects are to be recorded digitally and stored in a virtual library. The aim is also to integrate the digitized art objects, where possible, into the digital campus model and to make this available for viewing on the Internet. The project is intended to be sustainable and can also be expanded in the future. Connections with similar projects to record art in public spaces in the city of Chemnitz are possible.
Project website: Recording and digitisation campus art objects
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campus art objects (Photo: Phillip Neiser, 2024)
Contact:
Christian Vogel
0371 / 531…
christian.vogel@…
Mathematics Day 2024
2024
2024 (completed project)
Faculty of Mathematics
Mathematics Day 2024
Math Mania 2024: exciting, multifaceted and entertaining
Mathematics combines theory and practice, thinking and observation, and is involved in so many areas of our lives that it is indispensable as a cultural technique. The main event is the team competition for pupils in grades 8-9 and 10-12 with participants from Saxony, the Czech Republic and Poland. While the students are puzzling away, there will be training presentations for teachers, trainee teachers and interested members of the public on current topics and developments. There will also be "labs" with special mathematical problems, an escape room, the popular hands-on exhibition for all age groups and a joint lunch for registered participants. The main lecture with a socio-cultural theme will be followed by the award ceremony for the best teams.
Project website: Mathematics Day 2024
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Mathematics Day 2024 -
interactive exhibition
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Philipp Reiter
0371 / 531…
reiter@…
Diversity and inclusion
2024
2024
Faculty of Humanities
Diversity and inclusion to transform society
BOND – Bodymapping for Diversity
During seminars offered by the Chair of Educational Science with a Focus on Intercultural Education, students will organize three workshops for Chemnitz's civil society in cooperation with local associations in the winter semester 2024/35. The aim of the workshops is to address the hybrid multiple affiliations of the post-migrant society and to make visible the invisible diversity in Chemnitz. The chosen method of body mapping allows for a creative exploration of the life stories of people with and without a history of migration. It is an opportunity for students and participants to explore their own transnational belonging and to sensitize people to heterogeneity.
Contact:
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Gross
0371 / 531…
barbara.gross@…
Inventor culture
2024
2024
Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer
Inventor culture in Chemnitz and the region
The project is preparing an exhibition organized by the Chemnitz PatentInformation Centre (Patlib) and supported by the University Library entitled“Inventor Culture in Chemnitz and the Region”, which will be shown from01.03.25 - 30.09.25 in the University Library. The exhibition focuses onimportant inventions from the Chemnitz industrial region and theirprotection under intellectual property law. In addition to inventions fromChemnitz, innovations from Chemnitz University of Technology will also beexhibited. This will show the public the inventive spirit and innovativestrength of the Chemnitz region. The exhibition also illustrates theimportance of industrial property rights to protect inventive ideas.
Contact:
Dr. Carina Gerlach
0371 / 531…
carina.gerlach@…
Book project
2024
2024
Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences
Chemnitz as European Capital of Culture 2025 - book project
At Chemnitz University of Technology, there is multifaceted research on Chemnitz as European Capital of Culture 2025 across many different disciplines. A large number of concepts, studies and findings are bundled by the Junior Professorship of European Culture and Civil Society (Thomas Laux) and the Professorship of Sociology with a focus on sociological theories (Ulf Bohmann) and made available to a broad public. In order to achieve the easiest possible accessibility, the volume will be published by "transcript" in a printed version as well as "open access".
Contact:
Jun.-Prof. Thomas Laux, Vertr.-Prof. Dr. Ulf Bohmann
0371 / 531…
thomas.laux@…
Movement and standstill
2025
2025
University Library
Movement and standstill. The last year of study in the GDR
The six university archives in Chemnitz, Halle, Jena, Leipzig, Magdeburg and Weimar are planning to organise an exhibition on the last year of study in the GDR in 2024. A total of 35 exhibition panels are to be shown as a travelling exhibition at all six university locations. All facets of student life during the last year of study in the GDR are to be presented. This ranges from admission and enrolment, study plans and organisation, lecture halls, laboratories and libraries, leisure and culture, political indoctrination within and by the SED, FDJ, GST, military training and civil defence, internationalisation and the placement of graduates - the exhibition is designed as a travelling exhibition, will open in Magdeburg in October 2024 and will be shown in Chemnitz from 3 June 2025. A joint event with the Institute for European Studies and History, where a major project on the history of the student body in the GDR era is underway, is planned for the vernissage in the Capital of Culture year.
Project website: Movement and standstill. The last year of study in the GDR
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Movement and standstill (Enrollment 1989, Photo: University archive Chemnitz)
Contact:
Stephan Luther, Universitätsbibliothek
0371 / 531…
stephan.luther@…
Unknown neighbours?
2024
2024
Faculty of Humanities
Event series: “Unknown neighbours? Vietnamese diaspora in Chemnitz and the region”
The series of events conceived by the Chair of General Educational Science at the TUC together with the book author and director Claudia Tuyết Scheffel focuses on transnational educational biographies of Vietnamese people in Chemnitz and the region. Initially, research on this previously little-discussed group will be supported, including through biographical interviews with former students at Chemnitz University of Technology and former so called “contract workers” in the region. In the run-up to the Capital of Culture Year 2025, the project team will present their research findings to the interested public as part of a series of events.
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Unknown neighbours? (Bildquelle: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beggs/32154960113/in/photostream/ (CC BY 2.0 Deed))
Contact:
Theo Döppers
0371 / 531…
theo.doeppers@…
C the Unheard!
2024
2024
Faculty of Humanities
C the Unheard! Data-based Mapping of Civil Society Discourses in Chemnitz
This project is dedicated to mapping civil society discourses in Chemnitz through a data-driven approach. Civil society activities significantly shape both the public sphere of Chemnitz and the campus life at the Chemnitz University of Technology. So far, there has been no collection of data that documents and makes visible the diverse engagements of civil society actors. This project addresses this gap by creating an open data collection, developed and explored in collaboration with civil society project partners, students, and citizens.
Project website: C the Unheard! Data-based Mapping of Civil Society Discourses in Chemnitz
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C the Unheard!
Contact:
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Rabea Kleymann
0371 / 531…
rabea.kleymann@…
Special collection of the UB
2024
2024
University Library
„A quarter of a century of reading European Capitals of Culture“ - special collection of the University Library
From 2000-2025 more than 50 cities located in 32 countries were European Capitals of Culture. Some of them counted already to the „Big Names“ before (such as Prague, Brussels, Marseilles, Istanbul etc.), many of them, in contrast, were rather less known since then. For this reason, on the occasion of the year of Chemnitz as European Capital of Culture the Library will present a special collection providing a forum and appropriate attention also to these cities – with Chemnitz as „great closing“. The special collection may be visited from autumn 2024 on at the shelves around the reading hall at the 2nd level of the Library building Straße der Nationen 33. The presented books are of course also for borrowing.
Contact:
Dr. Wolfgang Lambrecht, Universitätsbibliothek
0371 / 531…
wolfgang.lambrecht@…
Europe in the classroom
2024
2024
Faculty of Humanities
Europe in the classroom - Chemnitz analyses of socialist and post-socialist textbooks
The project examines references to Europe before and after the reunification of Germany and the "fall of the Iron Curtain" in textbooks and learning materials in the GDR and the German federal state of Saxony, which are particulary available in the libraries and archives in Chemnitz. In doing so, the way in which Europe is thematized, but also the regional-European localizations as well as world and human images are identified and made visible. As part of the project, students are researching, cataloguing and analyzing textbooks from the subjects of history and social studies (Staatsbürgerkunde in the GDR) shortly before and after the reunification of the 9th and 10th grades.
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Europe in the classroom
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Deppe
0371 / 531…
ulrike.deppe@…
