Speech OB 12 October 2010

for the festive event "125 Years of the Jewish Community of Chemnitz" on Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 6 p.m., Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

Honourable Members of Parliament,
Dear President Knobloch
Mr Beermann, Minister of State,
Dear Mr Rotstein
Dear Dr Röcher, Magnificence,
Dear members of the Jewish community,
Honoured guests,

When the Iron Curtain fell around two decades ago, it was initially unclear where the countries and peoples of the Eastern Bloc would head.

In our perception, the reunification of the two German states has become a symbol and a personal experience of unprecedented change.

The urge for freedom, democracy and self-determination united the people of Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria more than the Warsaw Pact or any ideology ever could.

There was hardly any time in the years after 1989 to discuss this. So great were the hope, the anger, the euphoria, the zest for action, the despair, the unfulfilled longing, the rapid pace of change and the personal desire to reorientate oneself.
The seemingly impossible had become possible:
The Cold War was coming to an end.

The peoples to the east of the torn down borders across Europe struggled to regain their composure. And we were given the chance - 45 years after the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust - to be one people again.

Salutation,
Siegmund Rotstein, honorary chairman of our Jewish community and honorary citizen of our town, was one of the 12 remaining members of the community who knew in 1990 that a miracle would have to happen for this then 105-year-old community to have a future.

With outstanding dedication, you have ensured that we can say today: Isn't it great that we can celebrate the 125th anniversary of our Jewish community in Chemnitz with over 650 members!

People of different nationalities of Jewish faith came to the reunified Germany. Is there a greater leap of faith - in the knowledge of the unimaginable crimes against humanity during the National Socialist era? In our democracy, in justice and freedom.
On this foundation, new Jewish life grew in the federal states. Fritz Stern described the immigration of Jews to Germany as our "second chance". On the 20th anniversary of German reunification, I am deeply grateful for this second chance, for this unexpected good fortune.

Those who came to the Federal Republic, those who came to Chemnitz - for example from the Ukraine or Russia - did not find it easy. And those who stayed did not have it easy.

You, dear members of the Jewish community, came with your culture, with your language, with your educational qualifications, with the hope of being able to live your Jewish faith in freedom. You came with your dreams of a different, better life.

Your will and your faith gave you stability in a time and in a city whose citizens themselves were struggling to find their bearings.

Many of you came in the 1990s, when many Chemnitz residents were losing their jobs almost every week in the industrial city of Chemnitz. The privatisation of former state-owned companies initially failed. Rationalisations led to dramatic waves of redundancies. Around 60,000 people left the city.

When you, dear members of the Jewish community, arrived, quite a few of you had to experience that your qualifications and experience were not recognised or needed in professional life. I find it all the more remarkable that you were not discouraged. Your children have spurred you on to utilise the opportunities offered by our education system with ambition.

The fall of the Iron Curtain gave you the opportunity to make new and, above all, free decisions and to develop your faith again. And it took your strength and courage to make miracles happen.

Did you trust us and yourself more than we trusted ourselves during this time?

Did you realise that we could once again become a modern, self-confident, strong industrial city?

That so much has been created in Chemnitz, to which our Jewish community contributed for decades, that a difficult time could be overcome?

To my honour, our Jewish community is part of the history of our city over the past 125 years.
The beginning of Jewish life coincides with the first industrial heyday.
At first, the Jewish citizens of Chemnitz could literally be counted on one hand. But from 1867 onwards, more and more Jews, especially from Berlin and the province of Prussia, moved to our city.

There were good reasons for this.
As the heart of the industrial revolution in Saxony, as a place of dynamic, inventive industry, Chemnitz had become a magnet for entrepreneurs, engineers and workers.

Factories with ever new products were lined up one after the other. This is clearly illustrated by Richard Hartmann's machine factories, for example. Hartmann's locomotives became catalysts of the German railway system.

Exported to almost every continent, they heralded the rapidly growing industrial city.

The "Saxon Manchester" was not only literally under steam.

At this time, Jewish communities had already existed in Leipzig and Dresden for years. The Kingdom of Saxony had only granted permission for these two cities to be founded. This privilege gave these communities a head start in their development. But it could not stay that way.

The emancipation of the Jewish population in Saxony was finally achieved in 1868 in the Saxon constitution, when it was stipulated that the "enjoyment of civil and civic rights '...' was independent of religious denomination."

This new legal basis had historic significance for the Chemnitz region and for the Jewish middle classes.
The first business registration licences were quickly issued and Jewish shops and businesses were opened.

It was finally possible for religious and social structures of Jewish life to form and become publicly visible.
The formation of an Israelite religious community was, so to speak, a logical step.

It was simply in contradiction to the actual living conditions that Chemnitz Jews were members of the Dresden and Leipzig communities.

As their roots in Chemnitz grew, so did the self-confidence of Jewish merchants, entrepreneurs and citizens. In Lord Mayor Dr Wilhelm André, they found a committed supporter of their goals.

During his term of office from 1874 to 1896, the city prospered almost without exception.
And Dr André devoted himself with dedication to the needs of the Jewish population of his city. The founding of the Jewish community was achieved primarily thanks to his intervention with the Dresden Ministry of Culture.

Overcoming numerous bureaucratic hurdles, the Jewish religious community of Chemnitz was constituted as a legal entity under public law - 125 years ago.

Salutation,
On the threshold of the 20th century, the community played an increasingly important role in the economic and cultural community. It is exemplary for Judaism in major German cities.
Within a short period of time, many Jewish-run companies were established, which for decades contributed to Chemnitz's status as an internationally recognised industrial city.

It is thanks to entrepreneurs such as the Goeritz and Friedheim brothers, Emanuel Adler, Saul Schreiber and Salomon Seidler that Chemnitz held a leading position in Germany not only in mechanical engineering but also in the upholstery fabric industry, for example.

Traces of these successful decades can still be seen today in the town's stone chronicles. One visible example is the building that stocking manufacturer Siegfried Peretz had erected in Elsasser Straße.

Salutation,
At the turn of the 20th century, the city outgrew itself in almost every respect. The 15th largest German city at the time developed a new self-image. The ensemble on Theaterplatz with the opera house and the King Albert Museum, the place where we are gathered today, was a source of great strength. Culture reflected and reinforced these signals, civic pride sprouted.

The city was full of movement and in a spirit of optimism.

A new space for artistic freedom opened up - and this freedom was also utilised by the Jewish middle classes with talent and skill.

The Jewish citizens took part in the development of their home town.

The list of donors for the construction of the opera house, for example, naturally includes numerous Jewish entrepreneurs. Among them were Louis Ladewig and Willy Lippmann. They donated more than 30,000 Reichsmark for the construction of the opera house.
The Kunsthütte and the theatre association formed the intellectual centres of the bourgeoisie and its pronounced patronage. Hugo Oppenheim was just one of many Jewish entrepreneurs who made a valuable contribution to the art collections as donors.

It is thanks to the intellectual and material support of many Jewish citizens that the Chemnitz Art Collections were able to develop into one of the leading museums of modern art in Germany by 1933.

The Expressionists - above all Karl Schmidt-Rottluff from Chemnitz - had their patrons here. These crazy painters, who did not paint what they saw - but how they saw it - were collected and exhibited in the city of industrial modernism.

Drama and musical theatre also became places of intellectual enjoyment in Chemnitz with Jewish participation. At the opera house, led by Richard Tauber senior, the 19-year-old Richard Tauber made his debut as Tamino in Mozart's Magic Flute - it was the beginning of a great career.

At this time, many Jews quite naturally referred to Germany as their fatherland. They were citizens and respected members of civil society.
Chemnitz became prosperous and showed a modestly beautiful pride, for example with its New Town Hall. Next year we will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. Its opening in 1911 was an outstanding event.

The fact that the Israelite religious community also joined the large crowd of well-wishers was more than just a sign of the solidarity of Chemnitz's Jews with their city.

Jewish citizens helped to shape their city. And they did so with the courage to embrace modernity. First the Tietz department stores', then the Schocken department stores'. A completely new sales culture - in today's terms - in a fascinating, seductive, modern ambience with style and class.

Erich Mendelsohn created one of his most striking buildings in our city. It is the only department stores' in Germany that has survived through the ages. With its reopening as the House of Archaeology in 2013, it will open its doors wide with new life as a magnificent testimony to Jewish commitment in Saxony. Just as DasTIETZ did in 2004: with content, ambition, style and class.

Address,
The construction of a synagogue was of outstanding importance for the Jewish community. After provisional arrangements, it stood proudly from 1899: the synagogue on Stephanplatz. The magnificent building, built according to the plans of Wenzel Bürger, was described by the people of Chemnitz as the "ornament of Kaßberg".

Jewish life now had a permanent place in Chemnitz, its centre. The community had grown to 3,500 members.

The open climate of industrial modernity needed and wanted immigration. Together with the inspiring diversity of artistic creativity, it was possible to create something outstanding.

Just a few years later, a historical blink of an eye later, our city was losing people, images, the very basics.

I would like to address you,
I was born in this city in 1962. As Mayor of Chemnitz, it falls to me to talk about the remarkable, the great things that happened 125 years ago, what happened 20 years ago - but also about the incomprehensible things that happened between 1933 and 1945.

Time and again, when we stand together - many of you are here today - at the site of the former synagogue on Stephanplatz on 9 November, I find it difficult to find the right words for this incomprehensible event.

I now believe that there are no right words in the face of the crimes committed against our Jewish citizens. But there is a sincere confrontation, a clear awareness of responsibility.

There is almost impossible happiness, perhaps even miracles. But there is also incomprehensible suffering, destruction, hatred, annihilation.

People are capable of all this.
We must never forget that.
Amos Oz, the first winner of our International Stefan Heym Prize, has the gift of finding words for this He puts it like this: "Hell, like paradise, can be found in every room. Behind every door. [...] It's like this: a little malice - and man prepares hell for mankind. A little compassion, a little generosity - and man prepares paradise for man."
Knowing about the "banality of evil", as Hannah Ahrendt depressingly describes it, is one important thing. The other is the very personal attitude of each of us.

And so it is precisely up to us to pay attention when we detect anti-Semitism, extremism or devaluation in our everyday lives. Nothing is a done deal. Therefore: don't be indifferent, don't look away, don't listen.
Civil courage is the lifeblood of a democracy.



A reunified Germany is a recognised member of the international community. The second chance did not fall into our laps. We have contributed to making it possible. Whether it succeeds depends on us.

Address,
Chemnitz products, machines, drilling centres, technical textiles, energy-efficient machining centres and motors made in Chemnitz are now being shipped all over the world again. We have successfully regenerated our traditions.

In Chemnitz, we have come back to ourselves over the past two decades - with diligence, precision, inventiveness, the traditional penchant for entrepreneurship and the talent to succeed through our own endeavours.

125 years of the Jewish community are part of this city's history.

The history of the Jewish community before 1933 and after 1990 is a history of immigration. And I am grateful that you, dear members of the Jewish community, have chosen Chemnitz as the centre of your lives.

Like others before you in Dr André, you found in my predecessor in office, Dr Seifert, who is also with us today, a Lord Mayor who was committed to promoting the development of the community. And he - together with the Saxon state government - actively took up their wish to build a new synagogue. The Chemnitz city council also supported them in this endeavour.

With the consecration of the synagogue in 2002, Jewish faith and Jewish life were able to reunite in a growing community.

In a laudatory speech for Paul Spiegel, former German President Johannes Rau once reported on his ongoing dispute with Salomon Korn as to "who said the sentence first: 'Whoever builds a house wants to stay'." Whoever it was: it's a good sentence.

The Days of Jewish Culture have been held in Chemnitz for around two decades. They were and are a call for welcome. And it is up to all of us to ensure that it becomes much more in everyday life.

The 125th anniversary of the Jewish community is a reason to celebrate - to paraphrase Siegmund Rotstein - also a miracle.
And so the coming festival weeks are also an express opportunity to be inquisitive and open to each other.

The exhibition that opens here today in the art collections is an invitation to do just that. 125 exhibits from the Jewish communities in Chemnitz and Dresden, from renowned museums and from private lenders document the chronicle of Jewish life in our city.

Dear Dr Röcher,
You are part of our immigrant Jewish community. You came with your family and stayed. Your job is not an easy one, but it is full of hope. You provide support and care in the community and you organise a strong community that is brought together, united and formed by the Jewish faith.

I and the city will continue to support you in this endeavour.
And I very much hope that your latest project will be a success: a first Jewish group in a day care centre.



Dear Dr Röcher, dear President Knobloch, I would like the members of the Jewish community to find a home in Chemnitz with their faith and traditions. I very much hope and wish that even more Jews will come to us.

And I would like to thank you for the fact that the community is facing up to the major challenges and doing the important work of integration.

It is a great stroke of luck for my city and far more than a leap of faith to know that Jews are once again being born, growing up and staying in Chemnitz.

And it is probably also the most valuable gift for our Jewish community on its 125th birthday.