Secret Chemnitz

Two weeks ago I met someone at a local pub who pitched a visit tour by bike in Chemnitz, titled Secret Chemnitz, scheduled on the next weekend. Chemnitz not being particularly known as a touristy destination¹, I was intrigued and decided to go. Actually 2 friends came along and that was a fascinating journey.

The visit tour format was:

• Saturday 17:00-21:00 wider city by bike.
• Sunday 11:00-14:30 city center on foot.

The organizers Sergey Nikitin-Rimsky and Martin Düspohl created this incredibly well-documented itinerary. At each of the 12 stations, Katrin S., an imaginary character, once official city guide for the GDR travel agency, would comment the surroundings. Interestingly, Kim, who lent her voice to the German version, was a real punk in Chemnitz in the 80’s² and was exiled for it. Sergey and Martin would enrich the audio comments with additional insights.

I will report only few of my discoveries and realizations here:

• In Chemnitz were the headquarters of a very important uranium extraction and processing company, the Wismut AG, employing hundreds of thousands people in the region. Activities were kept secret and the uranium was used for the USSR atom bomb.

• Chemnitz was once a flourishing industrial city. Home of Diamant bikes and a major Robotron plant. Robotron computers were inspired by IBM models and distributed across the whole east block.

• Buildings after World War II were built in a “modern” style. The time perspective is interesting: for the first time I realized that all these soviet-style buildings, that quite frankly look like the ghetto concrete buildings I know from poorer suburbs, really looked and were “modern” at the time they were built. “Modern” in a positive way. As in “better”. Which is surprising when I compare them to the German buildings from around 1900, that look large, colorful and magnificent.

• Some historical buildings, like the Rabenstein Culture Palace or the Kaßberg Prison, were sold off in part or in whole to private investors who repurposed them into luxury apartments. I think I would have rather thought about museums, or cultural places. But I guess there must have been so many, there’s only so much you can repurpose into cultural spaces. Especially for the relatively small population and outlying city…

I can only recommend this gem of a tour. Fantastic content, masterfully delivered, enjoyable experience (bikes, restaurants yeah!). The group was very friendly. Discovering Chemnitz was eye-opening.