Many city stories instead of one city story

Prof Dr Christoph Fasbender

Chemnitz is celebrating 875 years of city history next year. Associations, institutions and private individuals were invited to take part in the anniversary with their projects. We spoke to one of the initiators, Prof Dr Christoph Fasbender, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern German Literature and Language History at Chemnitz University of Technology since 2009, about the preparations and expectations for the anniversary year 2018.

You provided the impetus for celebrating the city's anniversary in a different way than usual - with a lot of participation, small-scale and decentralised. Why did you come up with this idea?
Prof. Dr Christoph Fasbender: I was interested in the question of how we perceive Chemnitz's history. If you ask people in Chemnitz about the identity and history of the city, you quickly realise that it is characterised by very different eras and many ruptures. People often don't even know which history they should relate to because there are obviously too few references to the present. I wanted to encourage the people of Chemnitz to think about their own history and to position themselves. What is important to people about the city's history? That is an exciting question.
If the city anniversary is being prepared by the traditional players, then perhaps there is one city history. But I wanted to hear many different stories. It's a big patchwork of opinions and perceptions and not a single narrative that you can retell. Instead, there will be many variants of urban history and urban stories.

Is this approach characterised by your academic work?
As a professor, I'm already involved in the early history of Chemnitz, that's true. But this area is quite poor in documents. And the few documents that do exist are essentially unknown. Things get more exciting from the 16th century onwards, when Protestantism spread and joined forces with the Catholic city community. But that is then only my subject area to a limited extent.
It's more of a personal motive. I came to this city voluntarily and feel responsible for it. I witnessed the rapid development processes of this city and felt that I wanted to contribute something to it. I wanted to use the city as a laboratory and let the people of Chemnitz say what their image of the whole is.
There is an incredible amount of movement and activity in Chemnitz, but some people also complain that there are a lot of restrictions. I wanted to give people space for a year so that they could be uncomfortable and address issues that weren't so present before.

Are you satisfied with the response to the idea?
We're not talking about glossy products. Most of the people who take part here have rarely presented anything publicly before. But that's also the exciting thing about it. People are conquering the city through the topic of urban history. I found it exciting to observe how stakeholders network with each other. For example, when I hear how the students get in touch with the bridal fashion shops to prepare something on the theme of love. The ballet, the city's galleries and local public transport are also approached and get involved. The various players come together through the topic of the city's history. I can no longer keep track of all the details. But I realise that young students are working together with old hands and projects are being created that were never planned in this way. This process of getting to know each other and understanding who you are and how you are will continue to characterise the city in the future.

Is it that easy to get involved?
I realise that many people are keen to get involved at the moment and say: yes, that's what we want too. It was important to me to make the university even more visible in the city. We have tried to increase this visibility in recent years. And we wanted to inspire not only professors, but above all young students.

What will remain of the anniversary year?
Sometimes you hear that great friendships have formed after a class trip or something similar. I would very much like to see a lasting collaboration develop from this extraordinary relationship, which came about by our own decision. That would be the best thing that could happen.

You are also running a project yourself. What is it about?
A long time ago, I found an old document from the 18th century. It's an interesting treatise on "Various kinds of kissing", which was written and printed here in Chemnitz. There is very little evidence of the 18th century in the city. Hardly anyone knows that there was a publisher, this author and even more so his work on kissing in Chemnitz at that time. We want to reproduce this book for the city, edit it in part and present it in a readable form with performances and artistic presentations on the Day of the Kiss, 6 July 2018.

How did the students get inspired by the city's anniversary?
If we move away from seeing urban history as a political history, a sequence of dates, then we get much closer to the heart of the matter. We can realise that there are thousands of city histories. A history of music, painting, crafts, literature, women, childhood, foreignness, poverty, currency - Chemnitz has all these special stories. And the students are well aware of their interests and have been inspired to organise something together with like-minded people in the city.

The city anniversary is intended to pave the way for the bid to become European Capital of Culture 2025? How is that supposed to succeed?
An incredible amount is happening in this city. In the past three or four years, I have seen a lot of new beginnings and dynamism and the political will to encourage the city's society to participate. When I first presented the concept for 875 years of Chemnitz, nobody was talking about the Capital of Culture bid. And yet things are already coming together. I think it is important to remind the people of Chemnitz that they are part of the city. They should not only feel this by paying parking tickets because they have parked incorrectly or complaining because something is blocked or not running. I am firmly convinced that there is a great deal of willingness in Chemnitz to help shape the city. Politicians have also understood this participatory approach and, as we can see, are consistently supporting it.

What should the city look like by 2025?
The city needs an urban society based on understanding and interaction. City centres will benefit if they continue to open up, if they see themselves not as stewards of history but as shapers of the present and the future. I can already see this in many places. The openness of cultural institutions takes on a whole new quality.

Why should Chemnitz engage with its history beyond the anniversary year?
Chemnitz does not have an easy relationship with its history. It has experienced at least three or four very drastic upheavals: the seizure of power by the National Socialists, the dissolution of the intellectual bourgeoisie, the introduction of socialism and its end. All of these were major upheavals that took a whole century away from the city and where it is still unclear today how it should actually stand. So I would like to see a new relationship to our history. We have no real anchor in our historical narrative and few visible contemporary witnesses that we can build on. This is another reason why we need to write and think about Chemnitz's city history in a completely different way.