Sonnenberg vs. Heckert

You have to like them, the two of them. City districts. And Katja Manz and Norbert Engst. It is the unagitated enthusiasm with which the two district enthusiasts talk about their respective Chemnitz heart-hood that is infectious, captivating and makes you travel through the past and present on the Sonnenberg and in the so-called Heckert area. The latter is actually five districts in size and in its heyday was almost a city in its own right with over 90,000 inhabitants.

During a cold January day, we meet at St. Mark's Church, this landmark of the Sonnenberg that is strangely caught between typical old building architecture and socialist gap construction. And from this moment on it is already there, the thought of the often described magical second glance. And something else resonates in every line: Katja Manz and Norbert Engst are, in the spirit of the title European Capital of Culture that Chemnitz will bear in 2025, doers and makers.

Now Sonnenberg is characterised by old buildings in the style of past eras. The Heckert area was built from greenfield sites in the 1970s and 1980s with so-called new buildings. Norbert, why is it possible to compare the two districts, which at first glance seem very different?

Norbert: First of all, there is the history. They were both working-class neighbourhoods that were built to relieve the housing shortage, including that of workers. Sonnenberg was built to alleviate the housing shortage around 1900. There were different approaches over the decades. The Heckert area was ultimately created to respond to the housing shortage of the 1960s and 1970s.

After the peaceful revolution in 1989 and in the 1990s, more than half of the residents left the Heckert area. You can still be found here and have even written books about this area of the city. What attracts you to the Heckert area?

Norbert: It's a huge playground. You can do a lot. There are few others who are interested in it. Be it for the history, or for the current state. You can discover a lot on your own and show it to interested people.

What would that be, for example?

Norbert: Perhaps the first thing that's interesting is how the heights were dealt with here. There are fantastic views over the whole city and into the Ore Mountains. We have leftover street remnants where houses used to stand, which were then demolished in the 90s and early 2000s. Now there are just streets into nothingness. We have the Morgenleite with a large wooded area. Right in the middle of the development area. Housing construction was supposed to start there, too, and you can see the beginnings of it - but it never happened. It was the same at the other end of the area in Hutholz-Süd. Today you can see where the turnaround began. You can see how it should have continued with new housing construction. But it didn't happen. It's like it's frozen and you can see that today.

Is there a special culture in the Heckert area? For example, a culture of living or a special culture of life?

Norbert: It is developing, I would say. The Heckert area went through difficult times in the 90s and early 2000s. Even in the media, a lot of things were talked down here. In the pejorative sense of an East German prefabricated housing area. Of course, this has left its mark on people. But I have been observing a certain change for three to four years. There are people again who say they are proud to live here. They are consciously saying the same thing elsewhere. That would not have been possible in the 90s or 2000s. At best, people would have said they lived in Markersdorf or Hutholz, but they wouldn't have admitted that they lived in the Fritz Heckert area.

Katja, why does Chemnitz as a city need the Sonnenberg?

Katja: Well, I think the Sonnenberg is still an experimental area in the city at the moment. It is a symbol of the unfinished and of contrasts, of opposites. It does have an old building stock, but a lot has been torn down. So there were these gaps between buildings that are somehow used differently today. We saw it earlier: Suddenly there are chickens! So there are these open spaces for possibilities that perhaps no longer exist in other parts of the city. This has also changed the perception. Sonnenberg is no longer viewed so negatively. Younger people in particular are taking advantage of this potential and gradually moving to Sonnenberg.

See the Unseen. What does that mean for you with regard to Sonnenberg?

Katja: They always say that Chemnitz is only beautiful at second glance. It was the same for me. I remember when I first arrived in the city, I sat at the Nischel and just thought: 'It's not beautiful, but it's exciting'. So it's exactly the hidden things, the hidden corners, the little things, looking into the backyards and discovering new things. Sonnenberg is definitely still a bit like that. But it is developing into a swan. So I think it's on a very good path towards that and it's worth discovering.

The Heckert area is very present in Chemnitz in terms of its size and extent. Unlike the Sonnenberg, which is integrated into the cityscape. What is the unseen thing about or in the Heckert area?

Norbert: It's just like the Sonnenberg. At first glance, objectively speaking, it's an East German development area. But there are interesting pearls in between. Art from GDR times, for example.

You mean in Albert-Köhler-Strasse?

Norbert: Yes, exactly, on the so-called Honecker Boulevard. But also on the Ikarus Boulevard in today's Kappel district, formerly building area II. There is, for example, the Sachsenhalle with the interesting pond in front of it. Wonderful for children, especially in summer. Attempts have been made to develop boulevards or pedestrian zones in the individual districts. That's wonderful in the summer. And then there's the contrast. Two villages have been incorporated. Helbersdorf and Markersdorf are completely surrounded by prefabricated buildings. But when you're driving in Markersdorf, on Meinersdorfer Straße for example, you don't see any of that. You think you're somewhere in the Ore Mountains. Then you walk a bit out onto the heights and you're right in the middle of it again. The contrast is incredible. Then, of course, you can still see the gaps torn by the urban redevelopment in the 2000s. For me, the former so-called city wall on Stollberger Straße is also highly interesting. This was once almost the longest residential block, at least in Chemnitz, and also longer than the famous Lange Lene in Leipzig. Now there is only a fragment left. Five, six entrances of what used to be 17 entrances.

Chemnitz will be the European Capital of Culture in 2025. Katja, what is your concept of culture and what is your concept of culture for Chemnitz?

Katja: As a cultural geographer, I certainly have a so-called expanded concept of culture. Of course the Capital of Culture is an opportunity for Chemnitz. Nevertheless, one must not confuse or confound culture, the concept of culture and the Capital of Culture. Nevertheless, there is a lot of culture in Chemnitz' application. It is important to really involve everyone, especially the people of Chemnitz. That would also be my favourite concept of culture. Culture is the whole city per se, not just the so-called cultural programme. It wouldn't make sense to set up a big highlight project for the city, but it's really important to involve the population and work together with the people here. With the movers and shakers of this city, with the small and the big. And that is exactly the culture that I also see and that I like so much about Chemnitz. People don't talk, they do. This down-to-earth attitude is also a culture. Maybe it comes from the engineering mentality in the city. There are also parallels between Stuttgart and Chemnitz. Over time, I've found that I've ended up in a place that I like and that I'm familiar with in a positive way. This also includes the proximity to nature, because the combination of city and nature offers a high quality of life. And I wish for Chemnitz that this mixture of open spaces, affordable housing and small-scale, diverse offerings will be preserved, because that's what makes the city special. 

Norbert, you were born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now live in Chemnitz and work in Switzerland. What is your concept of culture and what is a typical Chemnitz concept of culture for you?

Norbert: Well, first of all for the Heckert area: the exciting thing is that you can develop a completely different concept of culture here than has traditionally always been perceived in the city. With the opera house and the theatre and other theatres or the museums. Yes, that is also culture. But we also have culture out here, on the outskirts of the city. We have huge eleven-storey buildings here, they have front sides, they are huge screens, you could play on them wonderfully. We have the largest canvases in the city. Then there's the WBS 70 architecture, which is still visible everywhere despite the modernisation. That is also culture. And there is above all the culture of the people who live here. After the fall of communism, various approaches that were once planned here didn't work. It is very interesting to play with this and to develop it and to show a counterpoint to the city centre. For example, on Honecker Boulevard, simply showing the history of what took place there. To create an awareness and a completely new self-awareness for the city, in which one can detach oneself from looking to other cities.