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 active as a volunteer since April 2024, including at the Hat Festival, the Tietz fairground and the Kosmos Festival.
I've done a lot of crazy things in my life. One of them was bringing 5kg of pasta salad to the volunteers of the water rescue service in a blue light vehicle during the Kosmos Festival. Once that was done, I was asked if I could provide media support for a micro-project in September. I didn't know much about it until then, but anyway, I agreed. What could possibly happen? Shortly afterwards, I met with the initiators, who had won the micro-project as part of the Capital of Culture and now had to "deliver".
The idea was to build a raft out of lots of PET deposit bottles and spend 24 hours on it on the castle pond. I admit that I always get caught up in this kind of cultural madness. The organiser told me that a channel on Instagram should be fed with video footage of the event. No problem, I'll do it blindfolded! My idea was to take a support boat with me. The city of Chemnitz actually authorised this for 24 hours. I was flabbergasted. Many years ago, my wife had the idea of exploring the castle pond in our travelling kayak. Unfortunately, this was not possible at the time due to the ownership of the castle pond. And now it is, at least for 24 hours. No sooner said than done. Friday was the first day of building the raft, the first plastic caps were attached to 2 large wooden boards with screws. Then the PET bottles were added - a very special puzzle if you have different bottles with different sized caps. The colours were the solution to the puzzle. Saturday was the big day. The last bottles were attached to the raft and the raft was fitted with side rails so that neither of them would fall into the water at night. at 2 p.m. we set off for the shore of the castle pond almost on time. I already had my kayak ready to go at the edge of the bank. The raft, which was very heavy, was lowered into the water by 4 people. It actually floated! The initiators Danny and Julia fetched their inflatable mattress and the 24-hour adventure started straight away. Another volunteer had heard about the event and launched her SUP board straight into the water. And I seized the opportunity, launched my bright red kayak into the water of the castle pond and was beaming from ear to ear. A once in a lifetime experience! I filmed the two of them from the kayak and diligently posted videos of this crazy action.
I have to say, some funny things came out of it. The two of them were bought a coffee by random people. An ice cream on top... what more could you want? In the evening, friendly volunteers came round with pizza. Later in the evening, someone brought cocktails... it's on! On Sunday, the weather forecast predicted heavy rain, which forced them to give up after 10pm. I arrived shortly before 12 noon and had hot tea and freshly picked apples with me. After the warming refreshment, the dismantling of the raft began. All 282 PET bottles went into bags and were later taken to the deposit machine, the wooden boards were already taken after the operation, so there was hardly anything left of the raft itself. I took the screws and metal brackets with me into the garden, where there is always something to tinker with. This was exactly the aim of the campaign - a more sustainable way of life. You can find the Instagram channel under the name "absaufen_in_chemnitz".
Perhaps the two have laid the foundations for something big to come in Chemnitz next year, who knows?
