On Thursday, 29 October 2026, from 4 pm, the city of Chemnitz will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of its town twinning with the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. To mark the occasion, Mayor Ralph Burghart invites you to a ceremony at the Garagen-Campus, Zwickauer Straße 164. Following a reception for invited guests featuring welcoming speeches and presentations, the public part of the event, open to all interested parties, will begin at 6 pm.

The inauguration of the restored K67 Kiosk will mark the start of the ‘Open & Connected’ event, which, from 29 to 30 October, will place the K67 Kiosk at the centre of a varied programme focusing on design, architecture, urban space and community engagement. Alongside Saša J. Mächtig, architecture professor Dijana Handanović, architect Nikola Opačić and director and screenwriter Jasna Hribernik will offer insights into the history, cultural significance and future of the modular kiosk. Through lectures, film discussions and panel discussions, the event will explore how places of encounter are created and how sustainable relationships between people, cities and countries can be shaped and strengthened.

Admission is free, but registration is required at www.chemnitz.de/openandconnected.

From 29 October to 15 November 2026, the German-Czech Cultural Days will bring our Czech twin town and Saxony together.

This year’s theme, ‘REAL?’, raises the question of reality in a world of artificial intelligence, social media and disinformation. The programme navigates between reality and performance, memory and fiction, and encourages a shift in perspective. At the same time, the festival continues to pursue its long-standing mission: to bring life on both sides of the border closer together through culture and to create opportunities for personal encounters. Over the course of just under two weeks, visitors can enjoy a rich programme of theatre, concerts, films, literature, exhibitions and joint cultural tours in the Ústí nad Labem region and Saxony. Some of the events will also take place in German or with German subtitles.

A delegation from Timbuktu travelled to Germany from 28 September to 3 October to take part, alongside partners from Chemnitz, in the networking meeting of the German-West African local authority partnerships in Bonn. Following a professional exchange with other German-West African local authority partnerships in Bonn, the delegation travelled on to Chemnitz on 30 September.

The delegation included Yahia Tandina, Chair of the Special Commission of the Timbuktu Local Authority, and Haoua Touré, the official representative of the Timbuktu Local Authority for waste management and recycling. At the request of the Timbuktu local authority, they visited the Chemnitz Waste Management and Street Cleaning Service (ASR) in Chemnitz to gain an insight into the city’s waste management system and the structure of its recycling operations. The representatives from Timbuktu also visited the Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff Grammar School, where they attended a French lesson with a Year 11 class. At the Schloßberg Museum, they learnt about the city’s history. The aim of their stay in Chemnitz was to get to know the city and explore potential cooperation projects. In spring 2026, the city of Chemnitz had successfully applied to take part in the networking meeting of German-West African municipal partnerships in Bonn. The guests’ entire trip was funded by Engagement Global with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

On 19 September 2026, the Mattoni Running Festival took place in Ústí nad Labem for the 16th time. For the first time, David Haase, a representative of Chemnitz City Council, took part in the 21.1 km course through Chemnitz’s twin town and the surrounding countryside. A special feature of the event was the run through the Spolchemie complex, where production had been suspended for the day.

However, the day began for the representative of the Chemnitz Fire Brigade with a brief stop at the professional fire station in the north-western part of Ústí nad Labem. This provided an opportunity for a brief exchange with his Czech colleagues. “Even here, you could sense the friendly openness that was to characterise the entire visit,” said Haase.

Together with representatives from Murcia (Spain), Chengdu (China), Osaka (Japan), Tainan (Taiwan), Tampere (Finland) and Stuttgart (Germany), three representatives from Chemnitz took part in the Sister City Summit in Łódź from 7 to 9 September 2026. The three-day conference focused on the cultural industries and served as a forum for discussing how the cultural sector can positively influence urban growth and the resilience of cities.

EU funding for local government staff

Over the next two and a half years, the city councils of Chemnitz and its Czech twin town, Ústí nad Labem, will jointly provide further training for their staff. An application for funding was approved last week by the Interreg Saxony–Czech Republic Monitoring Committee. The first round is set to begin in the autumn.

On Monday, the city of Chemnitz, together with its British twin city Manchester, hosted the first Chemnitz Business Day. A delegation led by Lord Mayor Sven Schulze travelled to the UK for the event. Around 80 representatives from the business community and trade associations in the city of Manchester, the Greater Manchester metropolitan area and the Free State of Saxony took part in this conference. The Chemnitz Business Day is intended to foster exchange between the regions.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, a delegation from Chemnitz visited the Slovenian capital from 7 to 10 May 2026.

Mayor Sven Schulze and the Chemnitz residents who travelled with them were able to experience how lively and diverse the exchange between the two cities is - in schools, sport, culture and urban development. A special highlight was the warm welcome at the German Embassy by German Ambassador Sylvia Groneick. Many valuable discussions and new contacts were made in a personal atmosphere, which will further strengthen the exchange between the cities.</p

To mark the start of “Bonjour Chemnitz!”, the Franco-German Friendship Days, the exhibition “Balades Dessinées à Mulhouse: 800 Years in 800 Pictures” opened in the Town Hall’s exhibition space.
Mayor Dagmar Ruscheinsky and the artist Lili Terrana from Mulhouse welcomed the guests.

On display was a selection of images from the twin town of Mulhouse, created during illustrated city walks held in Mulhouse from September 2024 to September 2025 to mark the town’s 800th anniversary.

On 24 April 2022, Lord Mayor Sven Schulze inaugurated a stele about Chemnitz's twin cities together with twinning associations and the Chemnitz Tour Guide Association.

The information board on Neumarkt square provides an overview of Chemnitz's twin towns. Anyone looking at the information stele will find out, for example, where the twin towns are located, how long the partnership has existed and how far the towns are from Chemnitz.

The stele was financed from the city centre fund at a cost of around 3,500 euros. It is the first stele in Chemnitz to include a Braille plaque so that visually impaired people can also recognise the eleven city names.

The City of Chemnitz hosted the first conference of twin cities on 10 and 11 April 2019. Under the title "Town twinning in challenging times", delegations from Chemnitz's twin cities Düsseldorf, Ljubljana, Lodz, Manchester, Mulhouse, Tampere, Timbuktu, Usti nad Labem and Volgograd were guests over two days in April. The twin city conference focussed on urban development, culture, civic participation and the Capital of Culture bid.