From the programme
A selection of current highlights from the Chemnitz 2025 calendar
More than 1000 events are listed in the programme book, in the city and in the cultural region with a further 38 municipalities. We provide an overview of current programmes, exhibitions and events. Given the wealth of the programme, this can only be a selection. The complete overview can be found at chemnitz2025.de/veranstaltungen.
Finale of the Capital of Culture year
Varied daily programme on 29 and 30 November
An outstanding year is coming to an end for the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 and 38 municipalities in the region. Under the motto "C the Unseen", countless committed stakeholders have put together a unique programme. Many people from near and far accepted the invitation to discover Chemnitz and the Capital of Culture region.
On the weekend of 29 and 30 November, we will celebrate the finale of the Capital of Culture year and ring in the Advent season at the same time.
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In the region
Maker Advent
Maker Advent: Christmas do it together
Maker Advent is all about making. Build your own candle arches, bake biscuits, print cards or fold gift wrapping - this is where truly unique items are created. Workshops and studios open their doors, creative people from Chemnitz and the region share their passion and invite you to get crafting, turning, lace-making, printing, baking and hat-making.
330 events in 42 towns and communities - everywhere you go, people are trying things out, creating and sharing knowledge. Whether ceramics, wood, textiles, upcycling or digital technologies: The Maker Advent brings people together for whom it is not the perfect result that counts, but the shared experience.
The Maker Advent is the creative finale of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025. Markets, open workshops and art projects light up the region and show what happens when tradition and innovation meet. The programme is international, multilingual and open to all - in German, English, Ukrainian, Arabic, Japanese, Dutch and Czech.
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PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail
The PURPLE PATH connects the citizens of Chemnitz with each other and with those of 38 towns and municipalities in the region. Between Mittweida and Schwarzenberg, Glauchau and Seiffen, Freiberg and Schneeberg, a sustainably conceived and designed sculpture museum is being created in public spaces.
Works by more than 60 artists can be found on industrial wasteland, at railway stations, on riverbanks or in the still waters of a millrace. They correspond with farm and textile museums, connect with castles and old churches, their organs and their art. Sometimes they also play in illustrious nooks and crannies of UNESCO-protected old towns.
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Fairground
Opera - Based on a novel by Werner Bräunig - Three additional dates in 2026 (sold out)
At night on the fairground, longings are awakened. Wismut-Malocher escapes the dreariness and backbreaking labour at the funfair. The swing is at its highest point and the world is upside down: where should you go with yourself in post-war East Germany? War and fascism have left their mark on the people, material hardship determines their everyday lives, and an authoritarian regime wants to take control of them. But they still have dreams. Werner Bräunig's protagonists seek a place in the world, take on responsibility, develop and yet cannot escape themselves. Due to his unvarnished realism, author Werner Bräunig was targeted by the SED regime. He broke down as a result, but his big question remains: How do people become shapers of society? Commissioned by Chemnitz Opera, Ludger Vollmer (composition) and Jenny Erpenbeck (libretto) have adapted the novel Rummelplatz for the opera stage for the first time.
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#3000 Garages
Interior landscapes - A video installation about garage interiors
The #3000Garages project presents the approximately 30,000 garages in Chemnitz, most of which were built collectively and by the people themselves 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 centres.
The following projects are currently on show:
Also in Chemnitz
ZADA pilot project
Since 2 September: ZADA - The German Centre for a Society without Anti-Semitism, Discrimination and Exclusion' is creating a new experience-oriented approach to personal confrontation with prejudice, conspiracy narratives, populism, fake news and anti-Semitism with the ZADA pilot project in Chemnitz in the Capital of Culture year 2025. The audiovisual exhibition tour "Challenge Your Perception" focuses on self-reflection of one's own thought and action patterns and how these can be controlled.
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Collateral Sculptures
until 19 Dec. 2025, outdoor area of the Hartmannfabrik, a project by Chemnitz investor Udo Pfeifer and his family. The owner and the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz developed a temporary exhibition project for the Hartmannfabrik in the outdoor area. Selected artists of international renown were invited to place sculptures and works of art on the grounds and in the gardens of the Hartmannfabrik.
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Open process. Documentation centre
Since 28 May. The 1990s are known in East Germany as the "baseball bat years". The violence was the breeding ground for right-wing terrorist violence. The second and third generations of people whose parents came to Germany after the Second World War to rebuild the country were born in Germany. Based on the NSU complex, the exhibition shows these migration stories and the everyday racism that people are still exposed to today. But also their resistance to it.
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