Chemnitz

Chemnitz is named after the river Chemnitz, a small tributary of the Zwickau Mulde. The word "Chemnitz" is from the Sorbian language (Upper Sorbian: Kamjenica), and means "stony [brook]". The word is composed of the Slavic word kamen meaning "stone" and the feminine suffix -ica.

It is known in Czech as Saská Kamenice and in Polish as Kamienica Saska. There are many other towns named Kamienica or Kamenice in areas with past or present Slavic settlement.

Chemnitz in 1850

An early Slavic tribe's settlement was located at Kamienica, and the first documented use of the name Chemnitz was the 1143 site of a Benedictine monastery around which a settlement grew. Circa 1170 Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor granted it the rights of an Imperial city. In 1307, the town became subordinate to the Margraviate of Meissen, the predecessor of the Saxon state. In medieval times, Chemnitz became a centre of textile production and trade. More than one third of the population worked in textile production.

By the early 19th century, Chemnitz had become an industrial centre (sometimes called "the Saxon Manchester", German: Sächsisches Manchester, pronounced [ˈzɛksɪʃəs ˈmɛnt͡ʃɛstɐ] (listen)). In 1913, Chemnitz had a population of 320,000 and, like Leipzig and Dresden, was larger at that time than today. After losing inhabitants due to the First World War Chemnitz grew rapidly again and reached its all-time peak of 360,250 inhabitants in 1930. Thereafter, growth was stalled by the world economic crisis.

GDR

Karl-Marx-Stadt in May 1980

After the dissolution of the Länder (states) in the GDR in 1952, Chemnitz became seat of a district (Bezirk). On 10 May 1953, the city was renamed by decision of the East German government to Karl-Marx-Stadt after Karl Marx, in recognition of its industrial heritage and the Karl Marx Year marking the 135th anniversary of his birth and the 70th anniversary of his death.[8] GDR Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl said:

The people who live here do not look back, but look forward to a new and better future. They look at socialism. They look with love and devotion to the founder of the socialist doctrine, the greatest son of the German people, to Karl Marx. I hereby fulfill the government's decision. I carry out the solemn act of renaming the city and declare: From now on, this city bears the proud and mandatory name Karl-Marx-Stadt.[9]

After the city centre was destroyed in World War II, the East German authorities attempted to rebuild it to symbolise the conceptions of urban development of a socialist city. The layout of the city centre at that time was rejected in favour of a new road network. However, the original plans were not completed. In addition, the rapid development of housing took priority over the preservation of old buildings. So in the 1960s and 1970s, both in the centre as well as the periphery, large areas were built in Plattenbau apartment-block style, for example Yorckstraße. The old buildings of the period, which still existed in the Kassberg, Chemnitz-Sonnenberg and Chemnitz-Schloßchemnitz especially, were neglected and fell increasingly into dereliction.

After reunification

Chemnitz at night, 2015

The restored market of Chemnitz

On 23 April 1990, a referendum on the future name of the city was held: 76% of the voters voted for the old name "Chemnitz". On 1 June 1990, the city was officially renamed.

After the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, the city of Chemnitz faced several difficult tasks. Many inhabitants migrated to the former West Germany and unemployment in the region increased sharply; in addition Chemnitz did not have adequate shopping facilities, but this was increasingly demanded.[10] Large shopping centers were constructed on the city periphery to the early 1990s.

Chemnitz is the only major German city whose centre was re-planned after 1990, similar to the reconstruction of several other German cities in the immediate post-war years. Plans for the recovery of a compressed city centre around the historic town hall in 1991 led to an urban design competition. This was announced internationally by the city and carried out with the help of the partner city of Düsseldorf. The mooted project on an essentially unused area of the former city would be comparable in circumference with the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.[10]

Numerous internationally renowned architects such as Hans Kollhoff, Helmut Jahn and Christoph Ingenhoven provided designs for a new city centre. The mid-1990s began the development of the inner city brownfields around the town hall to a new town. In Chemnitz city more than 66,000 square meters of retail space have emerged. With the construction of office and commercial building on the construction site "B3" at the Düsseldorf court, the last gap in 2010 was closed in city centre image. The intensive development included demolition of partially historically valuable buildings from the period and was controversial.[11][12] Between 1990 and 2007 more than 250 buildings were leveled.

Chemnitz in 2018

In late August 2018 the city was the site of a series of protests that attracted at least 8,000 people. The protests were attended by far-right and Neo-Nazi groups. News outlets reported about mob violence and riots. The protests started after two immigrants from the Middle East were arrested in connection with the murder of Daniel H., a 35 year old German man, the son of a German mother and a Cuban father, which had happened on 26 August. Violent clashes occurred between far-right protesters and far-left counter protesters, leading to injuries. The mobs outnumbered the local police presence. There were reports that rightist protesters chased down dark skinned bystanders and those that appeared to be foreigners on the streets before more police arrived and intervened. The riots were widely condemned by media outlets and politicians throughout Germany, and were "described as reminiscent of civil war and Nazi pogroms."[13][14][15][16]

The reports of mob violence and riots were criticized as incorrect later on. The German language Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung corrected its earlier reports, stating that there had evidently been no mob violence but there have been sporadic encroachments.[17] Minister President of Saxony Michael Kretschmer came to the same conclusion: "there were no mobs and man hunts".[18]

One week after the protests, a free "Concert against the Right" under the motto "We are more" (#wirsindmehr) attracted an audience of some 65,000 people.[19] A one-minute silence commemorated the murdered Daniel H., the son of a German mother and a Cuban father.[20] The concert itself has been criticized for far-left activities and violent song texts of some of the participating bands.[21][22]

The city won the bid to be one of the two European Capitals of Culture (in 2025) on the 28th October 2020, beating Hannover, Hildesheim, Magdeburg and Nuremberg.[23]

Roter Turm (red tower)

Theater Chemnitz offers a variety of theatre: opera, plays, ballet and Figuren (puppets), and runs concerts by the orchestra Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie.

Tourist sights include the Kassberg neighborhood with 18th and 19th century buildings and the Karl Marx Monument by Lev Kerbel, nicknamed Nischel (a Saxon dialect word for head) by the locals. Landmarks include the Old Town Hall with its Renaissance portal (15th century), the castle on the site of the former monastery, and the area around the opera house and the old university. The most conspicuous landmark is the red tower built in the late 12th or early 13th century as part of the city wall.

The Chemnitz petrified forest is located in the courtyard of Kulturkaufhaus Tietz. It is one of the very few in existence, and dates back several million years. Also within the city limits, in the district of Rabenstein, is the smallest castle in Saxony, Rabenstein Castle.

The city has changed considerably since German reunification. Most of its industry is now gone and the core of the city has been rebuilt with many shops as well as huge shopping centres. Many of these shops are international brands, including Zara, H&M, Esprit, Galeria Kaufhof, Leiser Shoes, and Peek & Cloppenburg. The large Galerie Roter Turm (Red Tower) shopping centre is very popular with young people.

The Chemnitz Industrial Museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz[24] opened in 2014 and is located in the former Schocken Department Stores.

The Museum Gunzenhauser, formerly a bank, opened on 1 December 2007. Alfred Gunzenhauser, who lived in Munich, had a collection of some 2,500 pieces of modern art, including many paintings and drawings by Otto Dix, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and others. The Botanischer Garten Chemnitz is a municipal botanical garden, and the Arktisch-Alpiner Garten der Walter-Meusel-Stiftung is a non-profit garden specializing in arctic and alpine plants.

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  Old and new city hall
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  Chemnitz Opera at Opernplatz
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  St. Petri church
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  Lutheran church
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  Castle church over the Castle Lake
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  The Mercure Hotel, tallest building in Chemnitz
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  The Transparent department store
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  View over Falkeplatz during night time
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  Burg Rabenstein
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  Bust of Karl Marx, the city's erstwhile namesake
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  Chemnitz University of Technology
• 
  View over the city halls and the inner city
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  Chemnitz-Kulturhaus
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  Watercastle Klaffenbach
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  Chemnitz Stadtbad
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  Guest houses at Castle park
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  Chemnitz petrified forest inside the Kulturkaufhaus Tietz
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  Gunzenhauser Museum
• 
  State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz

The city of Chemnitz consists of 39 neighborhoods. The neighborhoods of Einsiedel, Euba, Grüna, Klaffenbach, Kleinolbersdorf-Altenhain, Mittelbach, Röhrsdorf and Wittgensdorf are at the same time localities within the meaning of Sections 65 to 68 of the Saxon Municipal Code. These neighborhoods came in the wake of the last incorporation wave after 1990 as formerly independent municipalities to the city of Chemnitz and therefore enjoy this special position compared to the other parts of the city. These localities each have a local council, which, depending on the number of inhabitants of the locality concerned, comprises between ten and sixteen members as well as a chairman of the same. The local councils are to hear important matters concerning the locality. A final decision is, however, incumbent on the city council of the city of Chemnitz.[25] The official identification of the districts by numbers is based on the following principle: Starting from the city center (neighborhoods Zentrum and Schloßchemnitz), all other parts of the city are assigned clockwise in ascending order the tenth place of their index, the one-digit is awarded in the direction of city periphery in ascending order.

The city area does not include a unified, closed settlement area after numerous incorporations. The rural settlements of mainly eastern districts are separated from the settlement area of the Chemnitz city center, whereas this partly continues over the western city limits to Limbach-Oberfrohna and Hohenstein-Ernstthal.

The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Dieter Noll of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who served from 1990 to 1991, followed by Joachim Pilz (CDU) until 1993. The mayor was originally chosen by the city council, but since 1994 has been directly elected. Peter Seifert of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) served from 1993 until 2006. Since 2006, Barbara Ludwig (SPD) has served as mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 16 June 2013, with a runoff held on 30 June, and the results were as follows:

The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	69,195	20.0	4.5	13	2
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	62,053	17.9	12.3	11	8
	The Left (Die Linke)	58,009	16.7	6.9	10	5
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	40,357	11.6	7.9	7	5
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	39,908	11.5	3.6	7	2
	Pro Chemnitz / German Social Union	26,606	7.7	2.0	5	2
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	25,623	7.4	1.9	4	1
	Die PARTEI (PARTEI)	10,260	3.0	2.4	1	1
	People's Solidarity (Vosi)	7,862	2.3	0.8	1	1
	Pirate Party Germany (Piraten)	6,817	2.0	0.1	1	±0
Valid votes		118,548	98.5
Invalid votes		1,837	1.5
Total		120,385	100.0		60	±0
Electorate/voter turnout		196,515	61.3	17.2
Source: Wahlen in Sachsen

Downtown Chemnitz in 2014

Heavy destruction in World War II as well as post-war demolition to erect a truly socialist city centre left the city with a vast open space around its town hall where once a vibrant city heart had been. Because of massive investment in out-of-town shopping right after reunification, it was not until 1999 that major building activity was started in the centre. Comparable to Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, a whole new quarter of the city was constructed in recent years. New buildings include the Kaufhof department store by Helmut Jahn, Galerie Roter Turm with a façade by Hans Kollhoff and Peek & Cloppenburg clothing store by Ingenhofen and Partner.

Chemnitz is the largest city of the Chemnitz-Zwickau urban area and is one of the most important economic areas of Germany's new federal states. Chemnitz had a GDP of €8.456 billion in 2016, with GDP per capita at €34,166.[26] Since about 2000, the city's economy has recorded high annual GDP growth rates; Chemnitz is among the top ten German cities in terms of growth rate. The local and regional economic structure is characterized by medium-sized companies, with the heavy industrial sectors of mechanical engineering, metal processing, and vehicle manufacturing as the most significant industries.

About 100,000 people are employed, of whom about 46,000 commute from other municipalities.[27] 16.3% of employees in Chemnitz have a university or college degree, twice the average rate in Germany.

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  Volkswagen is the largest employer in the Chemnitz-Zwickau Agglomeration.
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  Deutsche Bundesbank Chemnitz
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  The Klinikum Chemnitz GmbH is the largest hospital in the former East German states and the second biggest employer in Chemnitz.
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  Chemnitz is the centerpiece of tourism in the Ore Mountains.

Chemnitz's population since 1466.

After German reunification Saxony faced a significant population decrease. Since 1988 Chemnitz has lost about 20 percent of its inhabitants. The city had a fertility rate of 1.64 in 2015.[28]

Foreign population in Chemnitz by nationality as of 31 December 2019:

Rank	Nationality	Population (31.12.2019)
1	Syria	2,915
2	Afghanistan	1,460
3	Romania	1,240
4	Russia	1,225
5	China	1,145

A large contributor to the city's foreign population is Chemnitz University of Technology. In 2017, out of its 10,482 students, 2712 were foreign students, which equals to about 25%, making Chemnitz the most internationalised of the three major universities of Saxony.[29]

BV Chemnitz 99 in January 2020

Stadion an der Gellertstraße

• BV Chemnitz 99 (basketball, men)
• Chemnitzer FC (football)
• Chemcats Chemnitz (basketball, women)
• VfB Fortuna Chemnitz (football)
• Post SV Chemnitz (swimming)
• Schwimmclub Chemnitz v. 1892 e.V. (swimming)
• TSV Einheit Süd Chemnitz (swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, skittles)
• ERC Chemnitz e.V. (ice hockey, skater hockey)
• CTC-Küchwald (tennis)
• Floor Fighters Chemnitz (floorball)
• ESV LOK Chemnitz (luge)
• Chemnitzer EC (figure skating, ice dancing, curling)
• Chemnitz Crusaders (American football)
• Tower Rugby Chemnitz (rugby)
• SV Eiche Reichenbrand (football)
• USG Chemnitz e.V. abt Cricket Club (cricket)[32]

• Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976), German expressionist painter
• Marianne Brandt, (1893–1983), artist, designer
• Stefan Heym (1913–2001), German-Jewish writer
• Valery Bykovsky (1934–2019), Soviet cosmonaut
• Sigmund Jähn (1937–2019), first German astronaut (Interkosmos flight of 26.8.1978)

Chemnitz is twinned with:[33]

• 2018 Chemnitz protests

• Media related to Chemnitz at Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition of chemnitz at Wiktionary
• Chemnitz travel guide from Wikivoyage
• (in German) Official website