In the volunteer editorial team, Volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Maxi, 41 years old, is a teacher at a Chemnitz secondary school and has lived in Kaßberg with her husband and son since 2020. For her, Chemnitz is a city where you can feel at home. That's why she wants to get involved in the Capital of Culture.
Since 2021, the site of the former Stadtwirtschaft at Jacobstraße 46 has been transformed into a place for art, creative work and encounters. On the edge of the Sonnenberg is a place that can hold its own with any Berlin artists' centre.
The Gründungsgarage, part of the extensive Tolerant Saxony network, hosted a social hackathon there on 17 May. Young, modern people with a social and sustainable entrepreneurial spirit came together and pitched creative start-up ideas. There was also a scholarship to be won.
I won encounters.
Children's make-up was available for childcare. Butterfly and cat stencils were quickly exchanged for free improvisation. Faces and hands were canvases and all the colours were water-soluble, of course. Finally, soap bubbles floated. Small children's fingers made them burst - a self-runner. Child happy, volunteer happy.
And then I met the snail man. He wasn't presenting a start-up, but a passion: gastropods and photography. After some shop talk about the existential loneliness of the snail in contrast to the anarchic sociability of the isopod, my first assignment came to an end.
If it hadn't been for the pending lunch at my grandparents', I would have liked to try the vegan goulash from Catering Subbotnik. But I did manage to try a vegan liver sausage slice. Mhm-yes, there's something going on on the Sonnenberg. Am I still in Chemnitz or already in Berlin? It's nice to be in Chemnitz!