A house in which many things are possible

Susann Neuenfeld & Holm Krieger

For 25 years, there has been a house on Kaßberg where creative, experimental and culturally interested people meet: Haus Arthur. A good 400 events take place here every year. It is now celebrating its birthday and in the past few days has invited its friends to concerts, exhibitions, an open-air poetry slam, a singer-songwriter evening and a blues night. We spoke to two organisers who fill Haus Arthur with life: Holm Krieger and Susann Neuenfeld.

What topics are at the centre of Haus Arthur?
Holm Krieger: We do intensive work with children and young people and offer many socio-cultural activities. The focus on youth work has been the basis from the very beginning. Even 25 years ago, there were many projects for children and young people who wanted to break new ground in educational work. For example, on the one-year anniversary, there were almost exclusively children's programmes and almost 5,000 people attended.
Susann Neuenfeld: Many of the holiday and play-along stories that still exist today date back to the early days of Arthur. And they are still very popular. However, we no longer have the wealth of programmes that we had in the early days.
Holm Krieger: A lot also happens here in the socio-cultural field. Concerts, lectures, exhibitions - lots of things to listen to, watch and think about. We want to be a place that invites people to do things. Young artists can exhibit in our gallery if they have wild ideas: Photography with light reflections or conceptual art. With the Walpurgis Night and the Blues Night, we also have major events in the outdoor area that have become legendary. We have watercolour and ceramics courses, which are typically used by older ladies. And with the aaltra, the rented pub, we have a strong cultural partner that appeals to a completely different, more alternative audience.

So different generations and people definitely come together here.
Susann Neuenfeld: Very different people feel at home here. Both the long-standing visitors to the creative courses and the young visitors to the rock concerts or the clinic clowns who rehearse here.
Holm Krieger: There are no arguments here either. Where elsewhere people argue about noise, here people talk to each other.
Susann: Many generations and disciplines in one building. We are proof that it works. There is room here for small initiatives and individuals.

What does Haus Arthur actually do in the children and youth sector today?
Susann Neuenfeld: Youth theatre is an integral part of the house. It's a very successful format. Young people between the ages of 14 and 27 come to us and stage plays themselves in their free time and with a lot of participation. Then there are the holiday offers and play-along stories. A new addition is the area of political education, which aims to support human rights education in schools with artistic and cultural projects.
Holm Krieger: Three years ago, we organised a thought play (the name of the event). Elias Bierdel was our guest and explained how Cap Anamur supports refugees and what refugees go through in the Mediterranean.

Are young people interested in such current political issues?
Susann Neuenfeld: Yes! Sometimes there is a lack of interest. But low-threshold programmes are quite successful in getting them to think outside the box. There are also many young people who are interested in politics and want to deal with their issues in a cultural and artistic way. For example, I'm absolutely thrilled with what we experienced in our youth project "And you're out". We put it on together with Gabi Reinhardt, a theatre teacher from Chemnitz. After the project, the young people were very sensitised to how racism and discrimination are visible in our everyday lives.

Susann Neuenfeld bubbles over with enthusiasm when she talks about her projects and her work with young people. With her work, she wants to invite young people to participate and create. "Jump over their own shadow, dare to do something". She talks about her project "Wall of Femme", a project that has encouraged young women to get involved with street art. Women who had never held a spray can before dared to enter this male domain and even Susann was surprised at how impressive the works were in the end.

How do you assess the demand? Are there many people in Chemnitz who want to do something themselves?
Holm Krieger: I always have a lot of people from Chemnitz on board for the gallery or the Kwartirnik series of events. There is traditionally a colourful and interesting art scene in Chemnitz, and we also have many local collaborations: whether it's Fuego de la isla, Radio T or Bandbüro.

How do you come up with the ideas for your projects?
Susann Neuenfeld: Many ideas come from outside the regular line-up.
Holm Krieger: There are lots of ideas in the city. But somehow there is fertile ground here. There's a desire to present great ideas and people are willing to support and participate. We invent a new story three times a year, especially for the holiday activities, and a culture of creatively developing ideas has developed.

How does the team work?
Holm Krieger: The main thing is that there is no managing director here. We have an honorary board, everyone is on an equal footing here. There is no boss who says whether the idea works or not. Instead, the five of us sit together and everyone gives their opinion. And then we also have to pitch in.
Susann: We are a very small team. There is so much overlap, especially in cultural and youth work. You have to talk to each other. And we are also inventive because the budget is simply tight. We try to get the most out of it.

The history of the building before it became Haus Arthur is also a special chapter that Holm Krieger can tell us about: "The whole square here on Kaßberg belonged to the state security district of Karl-Marx-Stadt". The building we are sitting in was the guardhouse. The armoury was housed in the function room with a stage. Letters were opened and read with steam in a villa on the premises. After the Stasi was disbanded in 1990, the houses were initially unused. Until the city's culture enthusiasts moved in with their ideas and projects, "it was almost like an occupation," says Holm. "There was a club cinema here, the Mozart Society, the Neue Sächsische Galerie. In 1989/90, ideas were founded and conceived here. It was a place with a spirit of optimism." The Environmental Centre, the Lila Villa and Haus Arthur are still located on Kaßberg today.

It has been through thick and thin for 25 years. Why has the Arthur managed to hold out for so long?
Holm Krieger: There is a place here on Kaßberg, right in the centre of the city, that has been open to art and culture for 25 years. We are the only cultural association that has not changed its location, even though it was initially a municipal institution and was supposed to be closed in 2000. But people fought for us and organised a "Yes to Arthur" campaign, where many benefit concerts were held and people stood behind us. The city council then signalled: if you found a sponsoring association, you can continue.
Susann Neuenfeld : The transfer from municipal to private sponsorship by the people of Chemnitz was an important step for Arthur. Those who were there talk about it again and again. It was an exhausting time, but it had a huge impact.

What music or cultural experience do you remember?
Holm Krieger: For me, it was the Blues Night 2012, when Canned Heat played in their original Woodstock line-up. A really great band, logically around 70 years old. But as a band they were really exhausting. We had to get a physiotherapy couch with a physiotherapist at short notice and the hotel beds had to be 140 cm wide. The guitarist got into a fight with the drummer at one in the morning. It was an experience, there were a lot of people there, but I was glad when it was over.
Susann Neuenfeld: There were many moments. For example, we were allowed to go to the rehearsal stage at the Schauspielhaus with the youth theatre in 2008. We presented the play Circus Schardam and also travelled with it to Leipzig and Dresden. It was all uncomplicated and impressive.

What makes life in Chemnitz special for you?
Susann Neuenfeld: I had difficulties with Chemnitz for a long time because I wanted to leave Chemnitz. I then came back here for love and felt very much at home in Arthur. What's really nice is what has developed in recent years. Many young initiatives, such as the Begehungen, the Odradek, Nikola Tesla, the Lokomov. The many initiatives, most of which are run on a voluntary basis, where distances are short and I have the feeling that we can work well together as a cultural landscape. That's what makes it worth living here for me. It's easy to meet people here, and it's easy to spin and network together.
Holm Krieger: We don't have a condensed neighbourhood like Südvorstand or Neustadt, where everyone knows: You go there if you want to do something. In Chemnitz, it's spread all over the city. But with culture in an urban city, things happen and that's naturally more difficult with such a structure. There are noise complaints and unnecessary sensitivities. But I also have the feeling that something is happening here.

Do you have to encourage the people of Chemnitz?
Holm Krieger: My city motto would be: More than 800 years without a lot of "humming and hawing". That is a strength that is emphasised far too little. The people of Chemnitz are traditionally somewhat sceptical of fair-weather slogans. And you can actually see when something is going well. We Chemnitzers prefer to perform well with understatement.
Susann Neuenfeld: You don't have to encourage the people of Chemnitz. There are open spaces where you can do something. There is plenty of scope for new, creative ideas here. Of course, the barriers to filling these spaces must be as low as possible. And what is also clear is that Chemnitz is an industrial city and the cultural scene is based on this understanding.
Holm Krieger: A Georgian artist who has performed here once said: "This is a city of producers. Artists like living here because they can do things in peace and work calmly. There is a lot of room for development, also for your own development. There's not as much pressure here to be perfect, as is perhaps expected in other big cities. As a result, the results are also beyond expectations and therefore more exciting.