THIS is a Capital of Culture? | Chemnitz
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 сер 2024
- The city of Chemnitz has a really bad reputation, and yet it's been chosen as one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2025. How did it get that honour, what is it, and what does the city have to offer?
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Chemnitz
01:03 A city of racists?
01:45 Karl-Marx-Stadt
02:57 A historic centre?
03:53 The world's worst glockenspiel?
04:46 Heraldic déjà vu
05:26 The opiate of the masses
05:50 War and reconstruction
06:48 Living space
07:54 Shopaholics unite!
08:35 Mix-and-match architecture
09:21 Boulevard of broken dreams
10:43 Industry
11:08 What is a Capital of Culture?
12:23 Penguins and castles
13:05 Would I live there?
13:47 Getting there
Music:
"On My Way Home"
by the 126ers
UA-cam Audio Library
"Modern Attempt"
by TrackTribe
UA-cam Audio Library
"Style Funk" and "Hot Swing"
by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com/
Creative Commons Attributon licence
Maps created using data from
OpenStreetMap openstreetmap.org/
---------
Support me on Patreon for access to bonus content and more:
/ rewboss
Send letters and postcards to:
Rewboss
Postfach 10 06 29
63704 Aschaffenburg
Germany
Please don't send parcels or packages, or anything that has to be signed for.
---------
My website:
www.rewboss.com/
My blog:
rewboss.blogspot.com/
My Twitter feed:
/ rewboss
My Facebook profile:
/ rewboss
"Fun fact: Our city is on a longitude that passes right through Antarctica!" is just my kind of humour
Haha, and my city is on a longitude that even passes antarctica and arctica-
@@hassanalihusseini1717 No it doesn't for there is no such thing as 'Arctica'. Antarctica is a continent, and there is no landmass on the north pole. What it passes through though, is The Arctic, denominating the region around the north pole.
@@TigruArdavi OK, we call it the Arctic. But no reason not to call it Arctica. OK by most definitions Antarctica is the landmass, but for most of us, it includes anything below the Antarctic circle.
@@TigruArdavi It is not necessary that there is land.... Arctica still exists, and every longitude goes through that area...
German hubris
When Glasgow was chosen "European capital of culture" back in the 90ies, many upper-class people wondered why the dirty hometown of violent gangs should win a title like this. Glasgow surprised it's visitors with beautiful architecture, good music, breath-taking galleries and friendly people. Since then, it achieved an excellent reputation. I hope that Chemnitz will improve it's reputation too.
Glasgow has nice people and Chemnitz,? Well, it has ever complaining and whining East Germans. 😂😂😂😂😂
Totally agree, but it is better than the towns outside
@@steffenrosmus9177huh?
@knobjockey76 You are perfectly right. I know Glasgow and all its cultural heritage very well. I studied there in the 90ies and kept coming back. But I remember German textbooks in school with chapters on "gang violence in Glasgow". That was fiction, of course, but it influenced students. My old English teacher said "If you ever travel Britain, you don't need to go to Glasgow". The decision to vote Glasgow "European Capital of Culture" improved the reputation of the city. It had always been a lovely place for living and working, a creative hub for music, architecture and fine arts. In the 90ies, people had better reasons for travelling there. And this is due to the "European Capital of Culture"-title.
Chemnitz does not have the same size and importance. It is only the third biggest in Saxony, way behind Dresden and Leipzig. But I will be very happy to see that people go there and like it.
schnauze halten dreckswessi@@steffenrosmus9177
Hello from Chemnitz! Your ability to quickly get a comprehensive and objective view of a city is remarkable.
Agreed, this video was rather excellent.
Some 10 years ago I was staying in Chemnitz for a few months. The Neonazis were visible in the streets BUT at work I met the most friendly and social people I've ever worked with. I'm still thankful for that experience and like to think back to that time.
So greetings to Chemnitz 🙋
@@anniestumpy9918 😋
@@anniestumpy9918The time has changed, there are no Neonazis anymore, just people from Middle East they attacking each other with kicks in the belly or they just throwing bricks through the window of your car, to look for something to steal.
Yeah, things really improved since this 😅
But thank's a lot for the greetings ❤
The biggest problem for the region is the loss of population. The region around Chemnitz has lost roughly 25% of it's population since 1989 if you consider the small communities they incorporated in the 1990's. It is now lower than it was in 1945 after the city was destroyed and even lower than it was in 1905. And it's mostly the young and well educated that left, now almost a third of the city's population is over 65 years old with an average age of 47.
It was certainly noticeably quiet. But that can be turned to its advantage: property prices and rents will be lower there than in most cities of its size.
Yes, Chemnitz actually has Germany's lowest rents. I live in a 60m2 flat for 415€ warm.
Biggest problem ist east germans being extremely hostile towards immigrants.many Neo Nazis there and it gets pretty dangerous there for immigrants
Hä? This can't be right. We got so many precious people from the middle east, so the population have to rise instead. They're bringing so much joy to our city when they attack each other with pepper spray and hit and kick each other, for whatever reason. Just delightful. And the police just can't do much about it. This a culture the city just can be proud of 👌🏻
@@MrDarkblader1But this is not so cheap, this is just the normal. Really cheap is Sonnenberg with 200€ warm for 60qm 😂
Interesting fact: At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Chemnitz was described in administrative reports and address books as a “factory and trading town”. During this time, the city recorded the highest per capita tax revenue and the highest per capita added value of all German cities. In 1910, Chemnitz was the 14th largest German city. Unfortunately, due to the war and the GDR, Chemnitz is now only a shadow of its former self.
I lived the first 10 years of my life in Karl-Marx-Stadt and lived in the 'Fritz Heckert Neubaugebiet'. Thanks for this fair introduction to Chemnitz. You are right that living in these appartment blocks was not the best but definitely not the worst way to live. They actually were pretty popular in the GDR. The alternative often was an old building with no water closet and heated by coal.
Your hruschovkas are much nicer than ours, sadly not all Soviet cities have budget to remodel their facades like this. Kazan, Moscow, southern cities usually make new facades for hruschovkas, but more inland cities do not. And yes, hruschovkas are in my opinion better than suburban houses, because you are closer to the city center and you don't need to be responsible for the roof or cellars, and yes, central heating is good (if the timetable for it isn't too short).
Very interesting! I'd love to see more of eastern Germany in your videos.
I'd certainly be interested in is reaction to Gera, a place that my dad lived near dring the latter years of his life. It's certainly one of those cities you won't have heard of, unless you know the area!
ditto.
@@torspedia my ex was from there hahaha. He always seemed down on it as a place (homophobia, not much going on, etc), but retained a fondness for the space and quietness (and the food!)
@@lemurjim the place did have its charm, though I didn't really see much of what he experienced... dad lived in one of the villages in the next door kreis.
@@torspediai lived in gera for three years. in my experience it's a dirty, rowdy place full of weirdos and freaks, but also so comfortable and fun and extremely colorful. i'm (coincidentally, regarding the video!) living close to chemnitz now but gera is so dear to me that i hope i will someday have the chance to move back there ...
I went to Chemnitz for events in the university, and it always impressed me as a beautiful city in dire need of love. It's not so much that has few people living in it, cities and towns change in population over time, that's a fact of life; but that the population living in Chemnitz is somewhat depressed and seemingly eager to move out. With some love and attention, I'm sure the city would thrive.
Been living in Chemnitz for almost a year now and I really like it! Getting around the city is very easy by public transport and each residential area has it's own distinct character. I feel like a lot of the investment is going into infrastructure as it's a task to find a road in the city thay doesnt have a Baustelle on it haha. Despite its reputation, Chemnitz is a very international city owing to the university that attracts students from all over the world. I was living in Jena before and I much prefer Chemnitz, it doesnt feel as elite/stuck up. The people that live here are normal people, and I like that.
Sounds great! Congratulations for your good choice!
lol! I moved to Chemnitz from Jena to study and I like how close together/in-walking-or-bike-distance everything is. I especially love how young Jena is. Now you made me contemplate, whether I am a but stuck up, because I really don't get that impression from the people here. Ofc more stuck up than in Chemnitz, but less so than in Düsseldorf, don't you say?
As a bit of a train nerd, I appreciate that the train between Chemnitz and Leipzig still uses East-German DR rolling stock, but I can see why regular commuters, and especially people with mobility issues, might not be so fond of the well worn carriages. But the combination tram/train that run trough the city are really cool. Where else can you find trams with bathrooms?
The regular trams don't have them tho. You can only find them in the City-Bahn-Trams. Probably bc they go to other cities around chemnitz.
Karlsruhe. Pretty nice bathrooms actually, though only on the S-bahn I think, and not in all of them. There also are a few old S-bahns with a (closed) board bistro.
I have nothing against nostalgia and it old trains and carriages should definitely be preserved but this train operating between Leipzig and Chemnitz is just not up to standard anymore and probably hasn't been for a minium of 20 years. It is a total nightmare for people with mobility disadvantages, older people and even travellers with slightly bigger luggage. The doors are too small and the steps are too steep to just easily hop on and off the train. More often than not people are dependent on help from the other passengers. It is more strange when you take in the fact that this is one of the most important regional train lines of this area.
If I'm not mistaken the trains between Leipzig and Chemnitz also caught fire once. They really need replacement or at least maintenance.
No one else is mentioning it, but the old trains between Leipzig and Chemnitz are seemingly never cleaned the outside, so the windows are covered in thick permanent dust.
In the time before Covid I visited Chemnitz. I checked into my hotel and they had accidentally rented out my room. So they put me in a suite with a view of the Red Tower. No complaints. It is an interesting place. I found the Sächsisches Industriemuseum to be really interesting. They had a Strowger telephone exchange that let the younger set use a rotary dial and I could test if I could still dial using the hookswitch. I could! Haven't lost the touch.
I tell you something, I live in Chemnitz and I heared the Glockenspiel many times, but I never realized there is actually something happening on the wall. Thanks for this video! Now I know where to look hahaha
Same here. Even when I didn't avoid our city center like I do now, I never realized the figures up there. 😅
A friend from Saxony once described the Saxonian economy cycle as "What's produced in Chemnitz is traded in Leipzig and wasted on drinks in Dresden. And that's probably part of the problem. Business people will come to Leipzig, tourists to trendy Dresden, and Chemnitz is the dirty production city no one cares of.
As a fan of diversity in architecture I am used to headwinds regarding brutalism, but for the civic centre as a prime example of East European brutalism I'm glad it is a listed building.
For people with an interest in the former DDR like me Chemnitz is a fascinating city
Arguably and weirdly you are even underselling Chemnitz. There are zero shots of the Kassberg quarter and just a tiny bit of the theatre square.
And this is why Rewboss AG is relocating its headquarters to Chemnitz.
By the way, the same line of longitude, that connects Antarctica and Chemnitz proceeds to the Arctic. Mind blowing...
Hey Andrew, another great video. Your channel has slowly grown to be one of my favorites in all of UA-cam. I really like that fact that you always give historic information on the places we can see in the video.
I have stayed in Chemnitz, maybe I’m not a typical tourist??
It was clearly a student city, and was the first place on my travels in Germany that I could smell weed. But it is nice to find somewhere that isn’t dead after 5pm!
I’d echo your point about the friendliness of the locals, and the mix of modern glass and old/rebuilt buildings made for some spectacular photos
We have a glockenspiel? Only knew the sound and haven't seen the figures. You suprise me.
The "sinister" motivational lines about eyes and going the right way are from a poem by Bertolt Brecht written in 1931, well before the Stasi was so much as a glimmer in Ulbricht's eye. So the quote must be understood in its original context - the idea that many people have more eyes than one person, and therefore more collective knowledge, experience, and judgment than one solitary person could possibly have. Likewise the line about going the right way is about how rather than getting frustrated when people disagree with you and just "ragequitting" (as we say nowadays) to do your own thing, you should instead try to convince everyone else of what the "right way" is supposed to be, because one person alone isn't going to make a real difference.
And before anyone says "yes but they were erected in the context of the Stasi" - sure, the Stasi existed in 1972, but it hadn't reached anywhere near the ridiculous immensity it is now known for; it was only about a tenth the size. Erich Mielke had only been promoted to the Politburo a year prior, so that massive expansion had yet to occur. No one at the time it was constructed would've interpreted this as a message of "beware - we're everywhere", they would've read it as the uplifting message of solidarity Bertolt Brecht intended it to be.
Thanks for the insight.
The way you present history is soo interesting. I think I never had a guidetour because I'm not eagerly interested in local history.
But you are able to present in such an intestering way that I cannot stop watching.
I am from west Germany and I moved to Chemnitz about 5 years ago. I can say that the city is a lot better than people think. It has a lot of parks and nature, it has nice hiking and bike paths, a lot of beautiful old residential buildings, museums, etc... While Leipzig is a lot nicer still, I think for people who don't want the trouble of living in a big city every day but still want all the benefits of having all you need in one place, Chemnitz is the right place. I like to think of Chemnitz as an empty canvas, if you want to see it as something bad, it will be bad for you, but if you see all the positives, it becomes a really nice city. It doesn't offer everything on a silver platter, but once you get to know some people who know places, or if you go around exploring, you will find many hidden gems. It is also nice to see that now that we have become capital of culture, apart from some weird art projects, it seems like some of the money is actually being used to improve the city: One example is how they are taking a small river that used to not carry much water and be all overgrown and completely redesign it with new trees, parks, a café, playgrounds, a new bike path... You see stuff happening almost everywhere, which is a good sign.
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for this refreshingly honest report about my hometown. You have a very good view of it and I share your views 100 percent. Chemnitz is not a bad place to live. The infrastructure is improving and the rents are much lower than in Leipzig or Dresden. Chemnitz is a city for the second look.
To all the viewers: Feel free to come here, you are welcome!
A Chemnitz resident
I attended swimmimg meeting in 1993 and I adore your Chemnitz very much. Greetings from Ljubljana
hi rewboss,
I'm a 25 year old student from Chemnitz and want to thank you for this fair and very well informed video and would confirm your point of view.
Small note on the penguins: I think the sign on the ground wants to state that if you want to go to the real penguins then "you have to go this way".
PS: I'm watching and loving your videos for years and was very surprised to see my hometown now from your perspective.
Thank you for this hint at Chemnitz. I've just found within the Wikipedia entry that there's a museum of industry which would be very interesting for me.
Good old Charly's probably still thinking about what they've done to his ideas...
The industry museum is really nice and i would recommend a visit.
The Museum of Industry is a must see. Chemnitz in the 19th century up to the 2nd World war was known as Manchester of Germany. To this day the reputation of working in the industrial branch or beeing an engineer is way better than any academics
the museum is actually outstanding!
Not many people even in Germany know that Chemnitz was a major city for car and motorcycle manufacturing. Before the second world war Auto Union was the second largest car manufacturer behind Opel in Germany and it was located in Germany. After WWII the company moved to Bavaria and became Audi which is now one of the biggest car brands of the world.
@@davinnicode Audi existed since 1910, was one of the 4 brands of Auto Union.
Very interesting. I visited Chemnitz and liked it very much. It’s twinned with Manchester (near where I am) and was called ‘The Manchester of Saxony’ I’d love to live in one of those apartment blocks!
That's right and why we're living in Chemnitz. ❤
I lived in one that’s shown on this video for almost a year and trust me you don’t :). Bc there’s so many of them the rent is insanely cheap which is about the only nice thing that can be said about it! Otherwise they are a cesspit of the trashiest kind of people. I would say about 30% of our building was (actual) Nazis, 30% retirees who can’t afford anywhere else to go and the rest immigrants and students who live there for much the same reason. If the Nazis were the only problem that would be manageable, but I can’t even begin to describe the SMELL! The whole building REEKED of cigarettes, and at least one apartment on every floor belonged to a retired hoarder who can no longer care for themselves and should have been put in a home a long time ago, and whenever they opened their door the stink would flow out like a tsunami and drench the whole building in the smell of decades of neglect (it’s indescribable) that would linger for hours. I have friends and family that still live in these buildings and the conditions are all the same everywhere you go.
@@Hakker1337 Many thanks for that information! I'm not thinking of going to live there, though I once lived in a tower block in Salford (Greater Manchester) and eventually I moved out because although the flat was great and the views were superb, the building was badly maintained and people were spitting the lift. Ugh!
This new style of content is awesome. Very interesting, too.
An excellent video, thank you. I've watched your work for a while and enjoy your still British humour ( I'm a Yorkshireman), but here you've upped the game. It's great to see a guide to a city that isn't just promoting it but is more honest, thoughtful, interesting and insightful.
Let's have more of these, cheers.
I'm from Lower-Bavaria, but we have some relatives in Saxony near Chemnitz.
A long and complicate story short: We are in the mid/late 1980ies: An aunt of my late grandmother (the aunt was younger than my grandmother, don't ask me why) was visiting a nephew who emigrated legally to the west a few years before. One afternoon they were were sitting on the terrace for coffee. My father, an officer at the tax office, trying to be politically correct says: »Karl-Marx-Stadt«…
The aunt of my Grandmother instantly got mad: »It's called Chemnitz, and it's going to be called Chemnitz, again!« _(»Det heest Chemnitz, und et wird ooch wieder Chemnitz heeßen!«_ - I still can hear this scream)…
Und sie hatte recht. Ganz liebe Grüße aus Chemnitz!
Well, she may have been ill-tempered, but she was correct😂
8:02 The Schocken Dept Store building, 1926, is a famous piece of architecture by architect Erich Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn designed three department store buildings for Salman Schocken. The other two, in Nuremberg and Stuttgart, have been demolished.
Very interesting. Your channel is a good place to learn about various German cities, even for Germans like me (who has never been to Chemnitz).
I grew up in a small town just outside of Chemnitz and now live here. I did not know where the „Rosenhof“ got his name from until now. Great video and it really showed me that I maybe should learn a little bit more about my own hometown 😅
You also missed the Saechsische Industry museum which is full of "cool things" as my husband says.
I so wanted to visit that museum and maybe even get an interview, but I simply didn't have the time.
@@rewboss Missing out. It is in fact full of cool things. You'll have to come back.
Very interesting to watch👍. When I'm in Chemnitz, I stay at the same hotel you did - with the same view. For me Chemnitz is a great mixture of different architectural styles - it has beautiful buildings of the Art Decco period with a special local Porphyr stone. Some of the socialistic period buildings are great International Style Architecture of the 60ies, they have some great Bauhaus buildings as well (Like the City bath)
Chemnitz also has complete Gründerzeit Quarters ( although not as obvious as Leipzig), 3 castles ( the City Castle, Burg Rabenstein and Watercastle Klaffenbach).
Saxony has many Steam Locomotive Railway sections still running and Chemnitz has a huge Steam Locomotive Museum.
There is one Thing, you didn't mention in the Video, which is very unique in Germany:
It has a petrified forest 290 Million years old! Parts of it can be visited in several parts of the city.
I'm pretty sure, Chemnitz will make the most out of the privilege of being chosen as one of Europes Cultural cities!
I made my home in Chemnitz after traveling around the world, and it really stole my heart.
I found the people and place to be endearing. And although it hasn't been my plan when I left the states to even travel to Germany. I am so glad I did.
Chemnitz is a hidden gem, with real people.
And I think perfect for a New Jersey native as myself, as in the states we aren't known as being the greatest most beautiful and so on... But this makes the places welcoming. People aren't snobs and there is actually a lot of culture.. Opera house is beautuful and there's a play house theater as well. Lots of art museums and small galleries as well. And so many hidden gems not on the main strip. Places like Arthurs and Club Kino and countless cafes and night clubs.
A small group organized a racist tyrant calling in people throughout Germany.. That weekend in response a group held a concert for peace with numbers four times as big... This is a city that comes together.
The university brings in students from across the area and the world. Students, professors and staff are amazingly warm and the forest spaces amazing..
I could go on and on. Lots to see in nearby areas as well... Surrounded by springs and spas short distances away and more and more..
I loved my nearly 15 years there and still consider it home.. Returning home for family.. I love any chance I get to return.
Sometimes it's places like this that truly make great homes.
Thank you for the video of my hometown. It always nice to hear some positiv notes about the city. With the reputation we mostly just get negativ news and such. We made a lot of progress in last two decades. The amount of old/run down houses renovated is insane. So many places looks so much better now. Lets see what they can still improve before 2025.
I was on a train in Kent last month, and I found an abandoned German magazine that was plugging Chemnitz.
I really like your content and as a guy who stranded in Chemnitz I thank you for the fair depiction of it. Hopefully, you come back during the Capital of Culture next year. There have long been a lot of subculture and bottom-up projects in the different parts of the city. I hope the Capital of Culture let's them shine.
0:56 Yep that’s me
As someone who got many relatives in saxony I am quite sad about the way Saxons are often presented in media but because I got relatives down there I know otherwise.
Neither am I really bugged by the apartment blocks. I live in a town that is dominated by them up in the north of Germany so it’s not too special to me and infact I quite like them when renovated.
My main issue with Chemnitz comes from extremely car-centric urban planning which the city council seems unwilling to address.
I hope the ECC can help the city and after all while they may not appeal to all, even apartment blocks out of prefabricated panels are part of Europes history and culture.
Exactly! The car-centric fact is what makes this city terrible, and that is also why some places that used to thrive are now closed
10:37 That almost-collision there came at the exact right moment XD
Hello from a native Chemnitz. I relly enjoyed your Video. great Job.
I'm off to Chemnitz in the next few months, travelling by car (eventually to visit Glashuette). Chemnitz popped up as a potential stop-over. Your video hit the spot: clear, laced with some dry (British ?) humour and well balanced. It painted a picture of a place that sounds 'normal', with standard folk getting on with their lives and, hearteningly, pleasant and welcoming to boot. Excellent. Keep it up.
7:00 Honestly, I find monocultures of single family homes that are identical as bleak, if not bleaker than this. In my 12.000 people small town they somehow managed to build new neighborhoods that look like a fever dream because they choose to build 2 different houses, over and over again (In Germany! Seems like we can do it too!) . And with gardens so small that the side windows are 3 metre from the window of the neighbour. These neighbourhoods are so densely built despite being single family homes that building duplexes instead would've improved on the feeling of claustrophobia. That's what happens if you live in a satellite town for the Ruhrgebiet - claustrophobia, 50m that way is farm land.
Hi from Chemnitz! I had to laugh a bit when you were showing all of the ugly block apartments since I‘m living in one and I really have to say: people don‘t appreciate them enough. They offer incredible living space for little money and it‘s really the best apartment I‘ve lived in so far. You have big rooms, a balcony and an elevator for less than you would pay in any other place. The only tradeoff is that they‘re ugly from the outside. The place you were at in the evening is a nice place in the city but yes, there are not a lot of people there. A part of the university is right next to it but truth be told all the students live in another part of town where the main campus is. You actually see way more people there :)
Lived in a similar ugly students apartment block (in West Germany). Great efficient use of space 👍. Liked it as well.
I have no idea how got here but thank you for for the shout out.
Grüße aus Chemnitz Heinersdorf.
Hello from Chemnitz :D
That is a great video abou the city.
I have been living here for the past 2 years and It offers you almost everything a big city offer in terms of cultural events, purchasing locations and more.
I agree that Chemnitz has room for improvements and can have a great future, specially with all the development that is currently happening.
I am looking forward for 2025 and see all the programs for the Kulturhauptstadt :D
I really love your city showcase videos! You do such a great job covering the locations from many angles that make them interesting. Keep up the great work. I hope you do some of the interesting border cities in Brandenburg like Zittau and Frankurt an der Oder.
Zittau still belongs to Saxony or are the Prussians coming again? :)
@@GrandTheftChris woops, my bad! Thanks for the correction.
@@scottmuc2112 no problem. 👍
@@scottmuc2112 There is a channel by a Dutchman that introduces Eisenhüttenstadt 😍😂
@@Nils.Minimalist I'm pretty sure I found the video/channel. Looks great. As someone living in Berlin, this looks to be a great source of inspiration for some day trips. Thanks!
Thank you for your portrait of my hometown! In Chemnitz there are many cultural facilities with unique character or exclusive content even most locals dont know about (why many of them dont understand why we should be capital of culture^^). I have to point out that the city's character is not dominated by the "Plattenbau" but more so by the diversity of diffrent districts. The Kaßberg has a unique architectural character, Schloßchemnitz (as you have shown too) is a beautiful central part of Chemnitz but also other outskirt districts like Klaffenbach, Hilbersdorf and especially Rabenstein (where i come from ;)) have a very high life-standard for very cheap housing. If I had to choose between Leipzig, Dresden or Chemnitz to live there my whole life, I would always choose Chemnitz! Two more unknown aspects of Chemnitz: it has a very high renomé for its sport facilities, sport trainig center and the Sportgymnasium. There a quite a lot of olympic gold medal winners that lived in Chemnitz. Secondly, in Chemnitz you can find a big educational center of craftsmanship. In Chemnitz and further in whole saxony many master craftsmen can be found. Although the numbers decline since the salary in west germany is way higher.
I agree with you. I was very impressed by my trip there - it has some great Jugendstil architecture in the outlying districts.
Oh wow, such a great video! It has the exact vibes which I love from British documentaries. Subscribed. Btw, what's the deal with the postcards?
I was in Chemnitz two times and both were good experiences. It has a great historic bath and a relatively chilled atmosphere with a lot of space. I also wouldn't have had any problems at all to move there.
And when I see the empty quite beautiful street near the University, I think in the close future, this will be a great place to live as a student. Especially with the living prices in other university towns it's only a question of time till it will become popular.
i have actually learned quite alot about the city i live in for almost 16 years from only this video. Thank you
You paint a positive picture, really and it doesn't seem so bad. I'd never heard about the place really. Well done.
6:54 The former GDR learnt to build very ecomically. GDR was way more efficient in building costs than comparable countries. They had some internationally acknowledged engineers at that time.
They had excellent engineers but no concept to keep up existing architecture.
Gut gemeint ist nicht gut gemacht...
Sure they had great ideas but often when you deal with products of engineering of that time period you come to the conclusion that they did not think about the product thoroughly til the end of its life cycle.
Thank you for this of course, which is most interesting too. I am British too and do not speak German at all; but you have put this together very well. This part of Germany of course has been updated really since 1990 I guess, but as you say there are many things from before then as there would be really too. Well done too!
And thank you for the highlighted comment of course there too!
thx. I've never been to Chemnitz and this video offered a lot of insights into the city. 👍
A few years ago I went to the opera house in Chemnitz (pretty much the only reason I go anywhere). The performance was really good (Amleto), and it's one of the most friendliest places I've ever been. There's a concert hall next to the opera house.
I stayed in Bruhl. Nice but not much night life. Went to a bar with folk I'd met at the opera and all in all had a great time. I'd be happy to return in their city of culture year.
Hope the capital of culture 25 title will have a good impact on the city. Leipzig and Dresden are already beautiful, now its chemnitz' turn.
Much love from Leipzig
I can't imagine why someone would call those apartment buildings ugly. I just see them as neutral. They are well kept, the facade is probably thermally insulated if the building was renovated, the apartment layout is optimized - what's not to like? And the downtown also seems nice, has well-kept modern buildings as well, with a few old ones. Looks better then any Croatian city.
Good camera work!
Als Chemnitzerin sehr interessant anzusehen! Danke für das Video 😊
Hi Rewboss. I would be really interested to hear which source you use for the map of pre-war buildings. Is it an online resource? Or maybe it's your own research?
Karl marx is now looking on a kapitalism paradise, oh yea that was a good one 😅
and the building behind him is now the regional tax office...don't know if that makes it better or worse.
They had similar economic sh1t when communism states by Karl Marxs ideas existed like Soviet Union, Weimar Republic etc. You had forced taxes back then too and also centralization of money.
Pal, you are now officially German.
This video showed me, as an Ausländer born here, that you are as German as can be.
It is not meant as an insult!
It is meant as flattery. More or less I agree with all your views on being from somewhere else, but living in Germany.
I have the same experience.
Mostly!
Sometimes I had to meet Nazis on trains...in East Germany...but in general. Nope.
Why didnt you mention the Chemnitzbahnen? Its at least for former east germany a unique tram train system.
Hi Rewboss, Nice video! Where can we find the inscriptions on 6.42; 6.45 and 6.49?
Trier, the birthplace of Karl Marx, has a shop where they sell clothes in the latest fashion: Modehaus Marx. When I visited Trier, I couldn't help but find that ironic.
You should have looked around at the Kaßberg. It's one of the hills, Chemnitz was built on and survived the bombing a lot better. it is actually the biggest Art Deco era residential quarter in Europe.
Also Chemnitz has some seriously important examples of Bauhaus Architecture, lie the Villa Esche or the former savings bank headquarters.
I do go there regularly ... Yes, it used to be an industrial city and yes, I think one should emphasize that more ... The Industriemuseum is certainly worth a visit as well as the former Kaufhaus Schocken and the Archäologisches Museum ... But what draws me to Chemnitz is the Villa Esche, which is an absolute "must" ... Designed by the spiritual father of the Bauhaus - Henry van de Velde, it portraits the interim between Art Nouveau and the Bauhaus in Weimar ... The Villa was home to the family Esche, who were Sock-manufacturers before the war ... which closes the cycle to the industrial significance of Chemnitz ... No, I am sure that Chemnitz has more to offer than what meets the eye ... ;-)
Danke für diese Super Doku.
I've been once sent by my employer to a factory acceptance test in Penig (with a g, yes this is a town, located far far away, along the Elbe river, very close to CZ), which needed some effort would I say, to be reached from Brussels. I would have preferred to take the train which was almost a full day sat in trains but the company booked planes... and trains, which were also a full day essentially waiting in airports 😞 Brussels - Munich flight ; Munich - Dresden flight ; Dresden - Chemnitz train, overnight in Chemnitz, hourraaa ! Next morning taxi to Penig and there we were. And then the way back.
The hotel was next to the Hbf and offered me the hugest hotel room experience I've ever got in my life. Just the entrance lobby of the room was about the size of the hotel rooms I use to book for leisure trips. Same impression with the bathroom (about 30 m²), then the room itself, an ensuite made of 2 spaces of about 50 m² each.... My colleage which had the same "room" next door rushed out in the lobby at the same time I did, both of us asking the other "did the company unexpectedly book two 1000 € ensuites ???" No ! That was for something like 119 € which was fitting the company policy for hotel rooms in Germany without any problem ! I couldn't believe it... This was a funny "Drei-O-Stadt" experience 🙂
🙂👍
maybe one thing to add: Chemnitz has a huge range of Architecture-Styles. You could have seen this for example on Kaßberg. But in General I agree with your few on my hometown. I was a little bit sag, that I haven't seen you here. Maybe next time you get convicted to go to chemnitz
6:45 These are not just "motivational texts" but poems from Bertolt Brecht, one of the most famous German playwrights and avid communists. The one displayed here in the video speaking about the party is called "Lob der Partei". It's one of five poems of praise from Brecht and they are all part of this ensemble.
@rewboss
I have also to give a fact to these "fancy" looking blocks (slab construction). When they came up they were considered a state of the art e.g. they had a central heating. Just as an example: My parents house which was build in 1928 (as well in saxony - only around 100 km's away from Chemnitz) had until the reunification of Germany in every room an oven.
So these blocks were back in the days absolute modern and cheap to manifacture. nowadays thats a complete different topic, but back then especially as so many residential builds were lost they were an absolute blockbuster!
Those old blocks are ugly, but they would be considered good housing in most of the developed world. studry windows, alot of green, sound isolating walls, central heating, thats luxury for high rises in places like Japan...
Awesome video thanks!
I've been in Chemnitz as a tourist ;) I was there as part of an organised industrial heritage tour of the area and the tour stayed in a hotel in Chemnitz.
yes, but did you eat at the American diner???
In all seriousness though, there is an Asian restaurant with some of the best Sushi i've ever eaten.
The end made me think of something Kurt Tucholsky once said about my own hometown of Halle: That the nicest place in the city is the train station, because from there, you can leave the city quite quickly.
I live in one of this monolithic blocks. And it have lots of positive side. It's a cheap way to live. There are many greens and parks nearby. The infrastructure is great.
Interesting video. Please do a review of Magdeburg, it was a competitor of Chemnitz for the European Capitals of Culture. After watching this, I'm not sure if it is a good or bad thing, that we lost the title to Chemnitz.
I grew up in Karl-Marx-Stadt in the 70s, in a mixed Soviet-German neighborhood near the Zoo, - went for a trip to Dresden and Chemnitz last year and was really pleasantly surprised of how well both cities are doing. But who am I kidding... I immediately felt like home. Had troubles comprehending the local accent though 😩
Good Video :) But you missed Auto Union and more in the Industrial history.
Interesting video, as always! But I have to say that the fact that they only have 2 inter-city connections per day baffles my mind. I live in a Swiss city (Thun) with not even 50'000 inhabitants (Chemnitz has almost a quarter million) and I guess we have an inter-city connection (Bern, Basel, Zürich) about all 15 minutes and a lot of those connections continue abroad, meaning I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin, Hamburg, Milano, Lyon multiple times a day. That's just mindblowing to me 😅
The inter-city connections start in Chemnitz and end at the coast of the baltic sea passing through Dresden and Berlin. It isn't even around for long, only since June 2022. However the connection is pretty slow if you want to travel to Berlin. You may take the old regional train to Leipzig and then change trains and you experience a shorter travel time although the stop over in Leipzig is about 40 minutes. The newly added intercity connection has been the first long distance connection since 2006. The new connection is heavily subsidised by the Saxony government. Otherwise it probably would not have even been put in place. One of many reasons probably is the geographical location of the city. In addition train track projects in Germany are also extremely influenced by local politicians and interest groups. That's why it often takes several decades just to get the approval for such projects.
The destroyed historical centre whose gaps were filled by fake-old concrete houses is reminiscent of the Berlin city centre around Nikolaiviertel.
Regarding commie block housing, many were torn down in the 90s and 2000s in many East German cities. I feel we're going to regret this decision.
I mean I don't know when exactly that was filmed, but I recognised it immediately from the photo because I stayed at that very same hostel only three weeks ago haha 0:46
I would love to see the history behind Prora on the island of Rugen. I was there in 2004 and have heard it has been renovated into a hostel.
Thank you for showing the good site of my hometown Chemnitz!
Excellent explanation of the culture capital thingy.
a video about chemnitz as a cultural capital? thumps up immediately, that must be great .p
A very interesting video, Chemnitz/Karl Marx Stadt has always intrigued me for a variety of reasons.
8:41 That combination of historical town hall and glass and steel Peek&Cloppenburg branch can also be seen in Lübeck. It's just downright awful.
On another note, those apartment blocks can be found in every major city. Also in the west. Here in Hamburg the townparts Steilshoop and Mümmelmannsberg - among many others - look exactly like this. But then again their reputation is very similar to Chemnitz.
Der Weihnachtsmarkt in Chemnitz ist schön.
It is great overview of the Chemnitz city. Would be great if you make that over more cities of Germany.
Chemnitz is completely underrated! Looks like Berlin 40 years back. Also go to the part of the city called "Kaßberg" which is one of the largest Wilhelminian-style districts in Europe!
That last comment was from me and Chemnitz is my hometown. Kinda surreal seeing the city on yt haha
It's fitting this city is so close to the Czech border, I was thinking it looked very similar to my Czech post-industrial city. I suppose a lot of Germans could find that kind of thing ugly, but the thing about those refurbished "commie blocks" is that the structure is sound enough you can design and renovate the interior as ultra modern or retro as you like.
It has a great Christmas Market.
Gotta say I didn't recognize you in the thumbnail. 😄
Very nice.
I never tought of Chemnitz like that. Thanks for showing me a other perspektive💪💪
Chemnitz was also the seed for the success of BMW. BMW obtained the ability to build aircraft engines or Zeppelin engines with the purchase of a company that was based in Chemnitz, which ultimately gave BMW the opportunity to be reestablished in Bavaria after World War 1.
Chemnitz also had an airport for the region, the terminal still stands today, in the middle of a residential area (Neubaugebiet), it is very easy to reach by the tram. Think, its on the Stollberger Straße, shame you didnt go into the Tietz, its got hold of like 300 million year old fossiled trees.