On Saturday, 28 March, from 5 p.m., the Chemnitz school planetarium will be reopened at the Albert-Schweitzer Oberschule Chemnitz, Albert-Köhler-Straße 48, in the presence of the head of the Chemnitz education authority, Jirka Meyer. After a break of several months, the planetarium is now back in operation as an extracurricular learning centre and offer for Chemnitz schools.
Admission is free of charge and registration is not required.
Representatives of the media are also invited.
The opening coincides with the nationwide Astronomy Day. On the one hand, there will be the opportunity to marvel at the (night) sky through telescopes in front of the planetarium and in the observatory from 5 pm (weather permitting). There will also be an extensive programme of special shows in the planetarium (see list at the end of the press release).
Schools in Chemnitz can also book dates at the planetarium for the current school term. Contact and bookings can be made via the new homepage www.planetarium-chemnitz.de, which is currently being redesigned. For the coming school year, it is planned that the planetarium can be included in the lesson plans of Chemnitz schools as usual.
Background
The Chemnitz Planetarium is an extracurricular place of learning whose operation has so far been shared between the City of Chemnitz and the Free State of Saxony as follows: The city provides the infrastructure (building and equipment), the Free State provides the teaching staff. Due to the shortage of teachers, it has become increasingly difficult to meet the planetarium's teaching staff requirements in recent years, which has jeopardised its continued operation.
With resolution BA-026/2025, the city council instructed the administration in May 2025 to ensure the conceptual preservation of the Chemnitz school planetarium and its offerings at the current location despite the shortage of teachers. The city council also explicitly allocated funds for the 2025 and 2026 financial years to maintain teaching operations at the planetarium.
The school planetarium will continue to be open regularly for kindergartens and schools. Public events are only planned in exceptional cases, such as on 28 March.
The programme on 28 March
- 5 p.m.: "Curious Thomas goes on a space journey" (from 4 years)
Curious Thomas has always wanted to know who the moon actually is. So he builds a spaceship out of his bed and flies to the moon and the sun. The sun introduces him to its children, the planets, before curious Thomas flies home again. - 6 p.m.: "Charlie's Secret - Luisa discovers the moon" (from 6 years)
Luisa spends her Easter holidays for the first time without mum and dad with her grandparents in the country. They go to great lengths to dispel her initial homesickness. Grandpa Hannes in particular tries everything to cheer up his favourite granddaughter. He promises her lots of excursions and exciting stories about nature, the night sky, the moon and the stars. When he finally fetches an old, shabby teddy bear from the attic, a very exciting holiday adventure begins for Luisa. - 7 pm: "Captain Schnuppe" (from 10 years)
A wild journey with Captain Schnuppe, Sergeant Tuk and the super-intelligent spaceship Argo on an exploration tour through the solar system. Please fasten your seatbelts, hold on tight and take off! - 8 pm: "Planets - Expedition into the Solar System" (from 12 years)
Mars, Saturn, Jupiter. Remote-controlled space probes have now explored all the planets in our solar system and discovered many exciting things in the process. We already know what astronauts could experience there. Travel with us to these worlds and experience the natural wonders of the planets. - 9 pm: "The Mystery of Dark Matter" (from 12 years)
What holds galaxies together? What are the building blocks of the universe? What makes the universe look the way it does today? Researchers all over the world are trying to answer these questions. We now know that about a quarter of the universe is filled with a mysterious glue: dark matter. We know that it exists. But we have no idea what it is made of.