European Capital of Culture 2025: Chemnitz relies on citizen participation
There is a major city in Eastern Germany that many Europeans have never heard of: Chemnitz. Now Chemnitz is a European Capital of Culture. This has surprised many people. Loss of industry, emigration, an ageing population, right-wing extremism... Chemnitz has many problems. As a Capital of Culture, the city is now looking for its strengths.
Under the GDR regime, Chemnitz was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt. Today, the city with a long industrial history has its old name back. The Chemnitz Capital of Culture theme: 'C the unseen!'
What is a "Capital of Culture"? 40 years ago an idea originated in Greece: Each year, a "European City of Culture" is elected. The initial priority was to safeguard the common cultural heritage: The title was awarded to cities with a lot of ancient culture, such as Athens, Paris, Amsterdam and Florence.
However, that has changed since Glasgow 1990: Today, the priorities also include urban development, citizen participation and cultural diversity. More and more cities with economic and social problems are submitting bids. The title "Capital of Culture" is intended to help start a new beginning. The European Union supports the transformation process with funding. Chemnitz won the title for 2025 - together with Nova Gorica in Slovenia and Gorizia in Italy.
Sophie and Cathleen are two of over a thousand volunteers for Capital of Culture Chemnitz. "There are a lot of people who complain," remarks Sophie, "who say that nothing will change here anyway. But that's precisely where you have to step in and say: Of course you can change something, by lending a hand yourself.'
One third of Chemnitzers are over 60. Sophie helps with the 'Dancing Neighbours' project. Alexandra Takats heads "Team Generation" as project manager. The Capital of Culture organisers strive to engage all strata of the population - whether young or old, born in Chemnitz or elsewhere: "We have many socio-cultural projects where the aim is to bring neighbourhoods together, so that newcomers with a migration background can mix with people who have lived here for a long time.'
You have to look at this in the context of the 2018 riots. Chemnitz made headlines back then. After a fatal stabbing, a right-wing extremist mob beat up people that looked foreign. The ultra-right scene is still present in the region today.
Chemnitz is also a stronghold of the AfD - a Eurosceptic party with a strong following - and a critical attitude towards the Capital of Culture project. AfD city councillor Ronny Licht: "Chemnitz is a divided city: The suggestion is that 'the bad guys' on the right fringe are not part of society. Then people keep talking about a 'civil society' that must become loud. That doesn't unite, it divides.'
The organisers of the Capital of Culture see things differently. Project Manager Capacity Building, Pascal Anselmi: "If you try to get actively involved in your neighbourhood, that's culture for me. The will to move something, to change something, to create something new. Don't be passive - instead say: This is my city, I get involved, I participate. And that, of course, is democracy in the best sense of the word.'
This is also the view of sociologist Ulf Bohmann from Chemnitz University of Technology: "The Chemnitz Capital of Culture bid has a clear focus on social issues. This can really change the city in the long term - through working together. Culture can be used to try out democratic coexistence and make people more resistant to right-wing extremism.'
One of the most important Capital of Culture projects is called "Living Neighbourhood". There are festivals in garages and parks, money for community projects where people can redesign their neighbourhoods according to their own ideas... The Chemnitz cultural recipe is simple: Get close to people, join in - and discover culture in everyday life.
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It will also join the 11 European countries, which officially recognize Palestinian statehood, including Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. For many of these countries, the act of recognition means acknowledging the sovereignty and independence of Palestine in its pre-1967 borders (i.e. in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) and establishing full diplomatic relations with the country. France would then join the countries that already host a full-fledged Palestinian embassy. WHY IT (SOMEWHAT) MATTERS? France has Europe's largest Jewish population, as well as the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. As one of the founding fathers of the European Union, its voice carries a lot of weight not only in Europe but also around the world. Its decision to recognize Palestine is likely to put additional pressure on Israel at a time when the word genocide is used by a growing number of historians and legal experts to designate Tel Aviv's war in the Gaza strip. Earlier this week, more than 100 leading organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and Oxfam said that famine is widespread across Gaza. Yet, the humanitarian situation on the ground is unlikely to improve. US-sponsored ceasefire talks in Doha failed after Washington withdrew, saying Hamas was not acting 'in good faith.' 'France's recognition of Palestine sends a signal to Israel that it is paying a political price among its allies for its actions in Gaza,' said Martin Konecny, who runs the European Middle East Project in Brussels. 'It also counters the Israeli effort to erase the possibility of a Palestinian state.' It is also unlikely that such move would have any legal knock-on effect, including on trade relations with Palestine. But Konecny said it could be used in court procedures in the future, at the International Criminal Court or national courts 'where this argument could play a role.' Observers point that Macron is hoping to pressure his European allies, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy to take a stance and revive the long-defunct two state-solution, whereby a Palestinian state would be created alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as it capital. This arrangement had been the basis of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations since the 1993 Oslo peace accord. Macron's recognition makes the two-state solution 'even more urgent than before,' Konecny said, but 'additional measures on Israel' will be needed in order to end the war in Gaza as well as the settlement expansion in the West Bank. While the Palestinian authority still advocates for two states, Israel no longer supports this solution to the conflict, nor does its US ally. In fact, settlement activity on the West Bank has further expanded in the past years, rendering the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state impossible. Add to that, President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017, prompting the US embassy to move there from Tel Aviv. The two-state solution advocated by Macron seems highly symbolic and unfeasible as things stand on the ground. On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also slammed Macron's move to recognise a Palestinian state, calling it a 'reckless decision' that 'only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace.' By contrast, many EU governments already support a two-state solution but argue that an official recognition of Palestine should go hand in hand with a long-term solution to the conflict in the Middle East. 'We can no longer accept massacres and famine,' Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani told Ansa, the country's press agency on Friday. 'Italy is favourable to the solution of two people and two states but the recognition of a new state of Palestine should be done at the same time as the recognition of a state of Israel by the Palestinians.' While the Palestinian Authority does recognize Israel, Hamas does not. 'What interests us is peace, not the victory of one over the other,' Tajani said. Pressure for a recognition of Palestine has intensified in the UK, with British prime minister Keir Starmer scheduled to hold an emergency call with Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later today. WHAT IS NEXT? But many political analysts also say Macron's move is a largely symbolic foreign policy tool that would boost the French president's profile but is unlikely to result in any changes to the situation on the ground. The once self-described, all-mighty 'Jupiter' president has focused his last possible term on foreign policy leaving his embattled prime minister dealing with France's mammoth budget deficit and controversial retirement reform. 'It is important for France's foreign policy but not for the Palestinians,' said Maria Luisa Frantappié, who heads the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa Programme at Italy's think tank Instituto Affari Internazionali. 'It will mainly boost France's credibility,' she said, especially among the global South actors. 'The danger is that a lot of diplomatic energy will focus on something that is totally inadequate in the face of what we are seeing in the ground,' Konecny said. Both analysts agreed that a much more consequential action would be for Europe, which has been historically sidelined in attempting to mediate a political solution to the conflict, to review its trade ties with Israel through the EU-Israel association agreement. But the EU is far too divided on the issue. Earlier this month, the EU's foreign affairs ministers decided to delay agreeing on a list of 10 options to respond to Israel's action in Gaza during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. They also agreed to 'keep a close watch' on Israel's compliance with a recent agreement to improve humanitarian aid access into Gaza. Last but not least, a shift in position would need to come from Germany, a country that has so far been governed by the so-called 'Staatsraison,' a sense of responsibility towards Israel which comes from the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust. So far, Germany has no plans to follow in on Macron's footsteps in the short term. On Friday, Stefan Kornelius, a government spokesman told German media that Germany continues to regard the recognition of Palestine as "one of the final steps on the path to achieving a two-state solution." At the same time, the German government is also "prepared to increase the pressure" if no progress is made in resolving the conflict, Kornelius said.
