Curious about the city

Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk

The city council adopted the cultural strategy for Chemnitz at its meeting in January. The strategy was developed with 150 representatives from the independent scene, institutions and administrative staff. The aim: to establish a broad-based cultural policy. As editor, Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk has compiled the final version of the 40-page concept from the wealth of topics and proposals. She hasn't been in the city that long and came to this job by chance. But one thing characterises the mother of three: Her enthusiasm is great when she talks about Chemnitz.

How did you come to work on the cultural strategy?
Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk: I moved to Chemnitz with my family almost two years ago. Perhaps that was my advantage: being new to the city. I take a look at what's going on in the city and am amazed by it. I got involved in the Chemnitz 2025 Circle of Friends for the Capital of Culture bid. Because this application and the cultural strategy are so closely linked, the Circle of Friends followed the development of the cultural strategy with great interest. When the strategy was presented to the public for the first time (at the beginning of May) in 2018, the association's board asked the members to take a closer look at the concept. I took this to heart and obviously grumbled so effectively that I was taken at my word. I was asked if I would like to work with them. I was very happy to accept. Because if I'm going to criticise, then I have to take responsibility for it.

Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk originally comes from the northern Black Forest. She made her way to Chemnitz via Regensburg and Freiburg im Breisgau. "We are an academic traveller. Chemnitz University of Technology brought my husband on board and transferred us here with them, so to speak." She quickly noticed many parallels between her home and her new centre of life. "It's fascinating how many aspects of the cultural areas are similar."

Where did your interest in working on the cultural strategy of a city that was foreign to you come from? Were you not afraid of stepping on the toes of long-time residents?
Yes, absolutely. I approached the task with a great deal of respect. I got involved in the middle of the process and talked to lots of people individually. What enables me to write a cultural strategy like this? My degree is in ethnology and cultural geography, and after my master's degree I switched to American cultural studies, specialising in memory research. In other words, I've been involved with cultural history, cultural theory and planning processes since my studies. At the universities of Regensburg and Freiburg, I also taught about the politics of memory, art in public space and urban development. My subject, American Studies, has a very broad, comparative approach to cultural-historical topics. And whether I'm thinking about how to put sculptures on a pedestal in the west of the USA and what happens to the city around them, or whether I'm doing it here, it's definitely transferable. If you see the city as a network of actors and interests, then it always helps to have already looked at other places in more depth.
It's obvious to me that you talk to the local people who work on the city's culture and ask about their ideas and visions for the future in order to incorporate them into a strategy document.

How did you gain a foothold in the Chemnitz cultural scene so quickly? Did you read a lot and then think: I'll just go there?
Exactly. My husband has been at the TU Chemnitz since 2015. We basically had a year and a half to familiarise ourselves with the city on a weekend-by-weekend basis. It was important to us that our children knew in advance where we would be setting up camp permanently. So we really took advantage of many opportunities to see and experience the city's cultural life. Initially from a hotel on the Brühl, later from his home on the Kaßberg, we explored the city and realised that there are lots of little places: There are many, small places that radiate a great openness, where you can strike up a conversation. That's something that fascinates me about Chemnitz.

The cultural strategy is entitled "Giving Culture Space". Do you think that's appropriate?
Yes, very much so. There is plenty of space in the city. I think it's very good to open up these spaces for cultural work, for planning and thought processes. Chemnitz has changed many times in history and has had to reinvent itself as a result. This spirit is recognisable in the urban space. I have the impression that this is a Chemnitz trademark.

How did you gain an overview of the Chemnitz cultural scene?
That's the charming thing about the Freundeskreis. In the first year and a half of our existence, we were a travelling circus, we went everywhere and introduced ourselves. So I combine my voluntary work with my already inscribed curiosity about the city and not only get to know the Capital of Culture project, but also the various places that you might not stumble into as a newcomer.

In your opinion, what are the most important things contained in the cultural strategy? Can you generalise like that?
First of all, the cultural strategy is not a "tick list". It is a framework for understanding and action, under whose umbrella various other concepts can be incorporated. The most important thing for me was to define culture as a central component of urban life. That you don't just look at the big cultural institutions. The concept of culture on which this urban strategy is based really wants to be comprehensive. It is more about lifestyle than about what is generally associated with culture. Culture animates a city, characterises it, makes it special.

There are people in Chemnitz who doubt the city's chances of winning the title of Capital of Culture because, in their eyes, it doesn't stand a chance against Dresden, for example. Many experts praise Chemnitz's free cultural scene, for example. Why don't the people of Chemnitz see that?
Probably because it takes place in spaces that already have a certain symbolic meaning. For example, people associate the Sonnenberg with decline or decay and are then unable to see the changes, e.g. that there is an incredible amount of creativity in these niches.
A little story about that: I was standing at the Capital of Culture stand at the Christmas market and had a conversation with a citizen about the demolition of unused industrial buildings, about the needle and circuit board factory. I said: But the Ibug - the festival for urban art - had just been in there. Weren't you there? That's something great. I wonder why people often only see the outer shell. It's not surprising that people aren't satisfied with it. But buildings like these contain the life story of the city. I know of few cities that have so much evidence of their industrial past. There are things to discover and experience behind the facades. Chemnitz is big. Whether you drive or walk around the city, you need time to look behind the scenes. Isn't it worth preserving things and saying that you can touch the built history here?
You also have to have a controversial conversation. That's not easy. You get into a conversation with someone you don't know and immediately have different opinions. There are people who get involved and you find common ground, and there are people who withdraw and think that this is not my Chemnitz. I simply hope that many such "clashes" will also lead to food for thought.

What is special about Chemnitz?
There are an incredible number of places in Chemnitz that can generate enthusiasm. You can also sense a dynamic in the city. It is not a complacent city. Many people in Chemnitz are not satisfied with themselves and their city. The city itself is not satisfied with itself either. That simply creates an incredible amount of movement. That's great. One of the city's strengths is that it's not finished yet. That something still needs to be done and that you have to say, let's move forward. The future lies ahead of us and we are going there.

On the subject of Capital of Culture 2025: how optimistic are you that we will win the title?
We have to become one! I'm already going for it! Seriously, I think it would be wonderful if Chemnitz became the European Capital of Culture, because the city has a different aura to many cities of a comparable size. It's not homely, it's not sluggish. Chemnitz is unvarnished in many respects. The city's wounds are visible and people are looking for good ways to deal with them.
I also think Chemnitz has a lot to give: All the friends who have visited us like to come back because they take something cultural away from here. We take them to the theatre, to museums, to festivals, on architectural forays. And every time they leave this city richly endowed. Other friends say that the city has a pleasant metropolitan feel to it. And I would also like Chemnitz to become the European Capital of Culture, because then we can show how many European urban ideas this city harbours. I walk through the city and see the majolica houses, for example. Suddenly you feel like you're on Wienzeile, which is architecturally characterised by Art Nouveau buildings. Or the courtyards, Wissmannhof, Wartburghof. Doesn't the Lutherkirche have a bit of a Sacre Coeur feel to it? These are of course very individual projections, but they make the city exciting and charming. You get the impression that Chemnitz was planned around 1900 with the aim of being a major European city. And since then it has reinvented itself several times as a major city. If you then take a look at the Street of Nations and put it back into a European context, you can see that the Eastern European metropolis of socialism was also built here. This gives us streets that are almost American in scale. At least even the Americans won't feel lost when they come here as tourists in 2025. (laughs)