Volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Maria comes from Italy and has lived in Chemnitz for around 6 years. She has been working as a volunteer for the European Capital of Culture since 2023. Maria loves Chemnitz and is therefore happy to welcome visitors and share her enthusiasm with them.
On Wednesday, 23 April 2025, I was on duty at the Hartmannfabrik from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., where we volunteers support the permanent staff in providing information to visitors.
At around 3.30 pm, we were approached by a group of five young people who introduced themselves in very good German as an Erasmus group with participants from France, Spain and the Czech Republic. They were interviewing some volunteers to prepare a report on their stay in Chemnitz. I gave my first interview in German!
But my working day as a volunteer in the European Capital of Culture didn't end there. At 11 pm, seven young people from Italy, more precisely from the city of Matera, which was the European Capital of Culture in 2019, arrived at the main railway station.
They were joined by Alexander, a "brave" volunteer who wasn't afraid to go to bed late. The train arrived on time and we immediately spotted the group of seven people. We greeted them with "Benvenuti a Chemnitz" in Italian.
Together with Alexander, we gave them some initial information about the city. They had never been to Germany before and were immediately impressed. On the evening of Sunday 27 April, we met again and got to know each other better. I asked them about their impressions. The nicest sentence was: "Chemnitz is a city that radiates calm." One of the girls experienced the efficiency and friendliness of the hospital staff and admired the beauty of the building: "It looks like a hotel".
After dinner, we took a photo showing everyone.
We talked about racism with the foreign students studying at Chemnitz University. Some admitted to having been victims of intolerance and racism, but fortunately these were few and far between.
The participants return home with the awareness of having seen Chemnitz, a city that was "the unknown" until today, but will be visible in the future.