In the volunteer editorial team, volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Danny is 44 years young and was born and grew up in Karl-Marx-Stadt. He emigrated "briefly" to the east of Mallorca from 2006-2007. But then he was drawn back home to Chemnitz. He has been an active volunteer since April 2024, including at the Hat Festival, the Tietz fairground and the Kosmos Festival.
You can hardly imagine all the things you experience, both positive and negative. I would like to write about a moving year: What has it done to me personally, what have I experienced, learnt or even changed. I myself am rather introverted, but I am interested in art, both musical and visual. Today, a year after I wore the light blue volunteer shirt for the first time, I am more open and can deal with people better. This is partly due to the large number of workshops I was able to attend, but also to the many assignments where you meet guests of the Capital of Culture who are predominantly positive. In the main, you become like the people you surround yourself with, and I have to say that whether you are a volunteer or a permanent employee, there is always a smile and rarely any negative vibes. Enough of the preamble, I now invite you on an imaginary journey to one of these assignments.
First, we will go on a special mission together to the company party at the Chemnitz job centre, a kind of speed dating event where the job centre employees can get to know lots of companies/clubs. We look after an information stand with all the materials relating to the Capital of Culture and its projects. Our job is to talk to everyone present and provide information about us and our work. In the Job Centre courtyard there will be special activities such as archery and an ADAC rollover simulator. We are in a team with Dirk Zinner, the head of the volunteer programme, and get talking to lots of people. Dirk says to us: "The three of us absolutely have to take part in the rollover simulator." We briefly doubt whether he's serious... Dirk really is! And a short time later, we find ourselves upside down in the simulator, ready to free ourselves from it under expert guidance. In this situation, we are supposed to learn how to deal with this unfortunate situation. We manage to free ourselves with tips from the simulator crew and climb out of the upside-down vehicle with a smile on our faces. I say to Dirk: "This morning at breakfast, I would never have thought that I would have to free myself from a vehicle that has overturned." This sentence should actually be the headline.... an unforgettable experience.
Now you were part of the special assignment for the job centre's information day.
You can find out what else happened to us volunteers in the other volunteer reports. Each of us is not a professional and has our own style. A year ago, even I didn't think/suspect that I would be able to paint pictures with words. Whether this works well or badly is up to the reader, but the fact is that I tried as hard as I could and if you've made it this far, my word painting doesn't seem to have been that bad.