The profile of the power plant is its diversity

Ute Kiehn-Dziuballa

Ute Kiehn-Dziuballa has been in charge of the Kraftwerk-Verein Chemnitz for 20 years. The socio-cultural centre, now at home on Kaßbergstraße, stands for a quarter of a century of intergenerational and interdisciplinary work. Significant events have their origins in the Kraftwerk: the first SPLASH, for example, took place in 1998 in the premises on Zwickauer Straße. Ute Kiehn-Dziuballa has countless memories of the centre. At the end of the year, she will retire as Managing Director. She will continue to support her successor until the end of the year. Time to take a look back.

What feelings will you leave with at the end of the year? Which will prevail: The laughing or the crying eye?
Ute Kiehn-Dziuballa: There is a very nice saying in Jewish: "There is a time for everything". 20 years is a long time, so I think it's a good time to stop and go. Otherwise, the smiling eye will probably prevail. It's been a great time, but there have also been many challenges that have taken their toll on me. The process of wear and tear or ageing doesn't leave me unscathed either. In cultural, children's and youth work, you rarely look at the time. It was often six-day weeks. In this respect, I have become a little tired. That's why I'm happy when someone comes along with a lot of energy, who sticks to the tried and tested, but also focuses on new formats.

Will you find it difficult to let go?
Of course it's difficult after 20 years. It was a mental maturing process for me to deal with this issue. On 1 April, I handed over the management of the company to Cynthia Kempe-Schönfeld. The first two weeks were a big change for me. I planned the transition well by familiarising myself with the new role and giving a lot of thought in-house to ensure that there was no room for anxiety. I just hadn't planned for myself. It's also a period of getting used to it and dealing with it.

A long period of time for a transition. That's rare.
That was very important for me. I didn't want to hand over everything from one month to the next. In management, you are responsible for everything here. Whether it's the desolate wall, the heating, the staff or the new General Data Protection Regulation. In addition to the events and day-to-day business, this presents challenges. I didn't want to go from a full day to zero - neither for myself nor for the Kraftwerk.

33 events are organised at Kraftwerk every week, plus monthly formats and large selected projects that take place once a year. These include a children's festival on the Küchwaldwiese, model railway exhibitions and breakdancing. "There are people who come to us several times a week. They call the power station their second home," says Ute Kiehn-Dziuballa.

So it's like a meeting place?
Yes, but far more than that with this specific cultural connection. It's not just sitting and drinking coffee, we also paint or attend the chamber music concert. Meetings and conversations take place at these artistic and cultural events.

That sounds like a somewhat older audience attending the events.
That's a fallacy. We have programmes for children and young people, for senior citizens and for everyone. When we moved here in 2003, the children's and youth work was already here. We added the cultural work. Then it all came together. Some events are specifically for young people, others, such as ceramics, lace-making and drawing courses, appeal to participants of different age groups. There are also events organised by other sponsors, one-off projects, exhibitions or concerts that attract visitors once a year. The profile of the Kraftwerk was very important to me: it's diversity.

Is the Kraftwerk well attended?
Of course, there could always be more (laughs). But there were also events where we unfortunately had to send visitors home again. Especially after the summer break, when the holiday season comes to an end, we are very well attended.

You got involved 20 years ago by chance.
I was involved in what is now the Network for Culture and Youth Work, which at the time was still called Neighbourhood Culture. It was a challenging job that I enjoyed doing. The network was based in the power station on Zwickauer Straße. So we were local and I knew everyone. The early nineties were a time of change. The Kraftwerk had different managing directors and stability was desired. Then Petra Borges, the head of the cultural department at the time, convinced me to take on the position. That's how I joined Kraftwerk in 1999.
At that time, the Kraftwerk was mainly known for concerts, such as Rosenstolz, Die Prinzen, the girls' band Tic Tac Toe or the cabaret artist Olaf Schubert. Children's and youth work also took place, of course. In 2003, the centre moved to Haus Spektrum and Villa Hartmann on Kaßbergstraße. Since then, more than 1.4 million visitors have taken advantage of the almost 65,000 programmes on offer.

What do you remember?
Quite a lot. There are so many situations, events, impressions - I would hardly know where to start and where to stop. A performance by the Kelly Family will definitely stay with me. There was a rush on the Kraftwerk like I've never experienced before, with people camping out in front of the hall. I will also remember the international theatre festival "Let's Meet". We had lots of foreign guests in the city for a week with great theatre performances. Or in the early 2000s, we organised projects such as "One Earth - One Life" and brought together representatives of the world's religions on the Küchwaldwiese.

They were thematically ahead of their time.
Always. But we also had to fight against resistance. Especially with the "One Earth - One Life" project. We submitted the project in September 2001. Everyone remembers what happened in New York on 11 September: the World Trade Center towers fell as a result of the attacks. And we wanted to do something about world religions. Then came the
11 September, the towers fell, and we had this project. But we did it - on the Küchwaldwiese, so that nobody had to cross a threshold and nobody had to go through a door. We had two objectives at the time. The first was that the representatives of the religions should be together peacefully - together would be nice. The second was that only those who really live their religion should be allowed to speak about it.
Another thing I remember fondly and well: in 2008, we staged the theatre play "An Ordinary Jew" by Charles Lewinksy in Chemnitz. We were the first in Germany to put it on stage. And we did it as a socio-cultural centre. We are very proud of that.

The most recent project idea, "The kippa stays", is a response to incidents last year when an Israeli wearing a kippa was attacked by a 19-year-old. Together with the Jewish restaurant Schalom, which is run by Ute Kiehn-Dziuballa's husband Uwe, the Kraftwerk association has launched this new series of events. For years, it has been involved in various projects to promote tolerance, acceptance and openness to different ways of thinking and to combat extremism in all its forms.

How do you establish such events, how do you come up with the topics?
There have always been specific occasions or out of everyday life and conversations. In the early 2000s, I had a conversation with Uwe Dziuballa. It was about the fact that many people talk about religions and don't even know what they're talking about. That was the starting point back then. We wanted to do something about it.
The incidents in Berlin were the reason for the "Kippa stays" project. A rabbi or a dignitary had said that people should consider covering their kippahs. My husband wouldn't do that. This title "The kippa stays" is the message and the project title. In terms of content, you then think about how you can bring this into focus.

What will you be doing from 1 January 2020?
A lot of people ask me that and I don't know. From 1 January 2020, I will still be at major events from time to time. But what I definitely don't want to do, and I'm working on myself, is to stand there like a know-it-all. Hence the motto: "Keep it different". It will be different, I'm aware of that.

What do you want for the Kraftwerk?
A continuous further development of the theatre, also with a view to our Capital of Culture application. A good involvement, a good co-operation. I think this will be a very intensive phase towards the Capital of Culture. For me, a triad was always important for the theatre and the association. Firstly, preserving the tried and tested. For example, the children's festival will take place for the 24th time next year. Why should you stop doing something that is established, good and popular?
Secondly, focus on things that are available and see what can be done with them. Thirdly, always be open to ideas, to new and crazy things. We have had good experiences with this in recent years. I hope that we are well positioned in these three areas, that we are always a point of contact for the people of Chemnitz and that we maintain a good price structure.

Are you positive about the wide range of cultural offerings in our city with regard to the Capital of Culture bid?
Yes, absolutely. I'm always happy when there's something going on. There are now quite often events that I would like to go to but can't because I have to be at the Kraftwerk myself. There's such a great and varied programme in the city and that's why I think that anyone who says there's nothing going on doesn't care, isn't informed or just wants to complain.