In the volunteer editorial team, Volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Bettina and Bodo live in Neukirchen in the Ore Mountains. Bettina has been a volunteer since 2024 and contributes her valuable voluntary experience to the European Capital of Culture gGmbH. Bodo has been a volunteer from the very beginning and has been involved with Chemnitz 2025 for several years. He uses his organisational expertise in the volunteer editorial team and takes care of archiving the texts.
We volunteers received an email: Invitation to the exclusive preview on 26 June 2025 with a live concert for the MDR programme "Unterwegs in Sachsen: Klangvolles Chemnitz - Eine Stadt gibt den Ton an." Places were limited to 200, so we had to be quick! We were lucky and were invited. Bodo, who was on volunteer duty that day, was able to observe the exciting preparations of the MDR team in advance - together with the musicians Felix Räuber (Polarkreis 18) and Justin Lehmann-Friese.
So what does Chemnitz sound like?
Just how much anticipation there was for this premiere was demonstrated by the presence of numerous representatives of public life - including the former Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig and the current Lord Mayor Sven Schulze, who were warmly welcomed. At 7 p.m., the time had come: Mr Schmidtke from the Capital of Culture welcomed the audience and presenter Beate Werner from MDR got the audience in the mood for the new film "Unterwegs in Sachsen" entitled "Klangvolles Chemnitz - Eine Stadt gibt den Ton an". The MDR team accompanied Felix Räuber on an acoustic journey of discovery through Chemnitz - full of attention to detail and diverse perspectives on the city. He preserved the sounds of the city - be it on the Sonnenberg at Aquaponik, in the Wirkbau at the Pochen exhibition or in the Industrial Museum with the brittle, metallic sounds of the machines.
The highlight of the evening was the song composed especially for our city from the captured sounds, entitled "GRAU WIRD BUNT", which lovingly and uniquely captures the spirit of the Capital of Culture year - Chemnitz as a city full of joie de vivre, lightness, creativity and hospitality. A special goosebump moment was created when a choir of Chemnitz residents performed the new song live together with Felix Räuber. Professionals were deliberately omitted in order to create a real Chemnitz feeling. The success of this was impressively confirmed by the audience spontaneously singing along to the chorus. To round off the evening, the artist sang his well-known hit "ALLEIN ALLEIN", before the evening ended with discussions and meetings with the artists and members of the MDR team.
The film is now available in the MDR media library - a must for anyone who wants to experience the new, colourful Chemnitz.
We, Bettina and Bodo, are delighted to have been part of this special premiere and to have experienced a great evening with many emotional moments.