Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Residents of Chemnitz, Welcome to our city, welcome to the City of Modernity. I would like to invite you to a virtual voyage of discovery through a city whose face has changed in the past years. Where a well two decades ago grey concrete defined the view, well-known architects such as Hans Kollhoff, Helmut Jahn and Christoph Ingenhoven have conceived and built a new city centre. Today, Chemnitz has an urban heart that attracts many people.

The modern architecture forms links between the gems of Classical Modernity, the Bauhaus and the Art Nouveau style. Treasures such as Villa Esche are a part of this just as much as the Gründerzeit houses of Kassberg or the redeveloped Schlossviertel (Castle Quarter).

Art and culture are modern as well. Linked to former times are the expressionist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff who was born here, or the Bauhaus icon Marianne Brandt. And today there is the Gunzenhauser Museum that houses approximately 2,500 works of Classical Modernism with one of the largest Dix collections in the world. The art collections of the city are also a talking point in the whole of Germany. Sometimes this appeal spreads half-way across the world, for instance, the premiere of the pictures of Bob Dylan can be seen in Chemnitz, which took place in 2007. On the subject of being a talking point: many celebrities were born in Chemnitz, or otherwise, grew up there. Among these is a series of sports stars: Figure-skating queen Katarina Witt, the captain of the national German football team Michael Ballack, weight-lifting Olympic champion Matthias Steiner, the pairs skating world champions Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, discus thrower Lars Riedel and many many others. Just as big is the range in art and culture. Associated with the city are, among others, the writer Stefan Heym, the actor Matthias Schweighöfer and artists such as Carsten Nicolai.

Going your own way, a new way of thinking and doing things unconventionally, this recipe makes the city and its citizens a success: Devised in Chemnitz, for example, were the thermos flask and the first laundry detergent. Patented ideas like thousands of others. In the city today, among other things, excellent machines and production plants are conceived and built, which are used for production around the world. In Chemnitz it is no longer the most important thing to manufacture products but to develop ideas as to how these products can be manufactured more precisely, more rapidly or more energy efficiently.

The University of Technology Chemnitz as an intellectual centre, research institutions such as the Fraunhofer Institute and a successful sector of medium-sized businesses which, for the most part, are family-run, create the best conditions for an economic success story. The result: for years, Chemnitz has been among the strongest growing cities in Germany.

The fact that you can work successfully here, is one thing. The other: you can live well in Chemnitz. An extensive range of childcare and excellent learning opportunities are one argument for families. Art, culture and leisure activities are numerous, the tourist destinations charming. And the fact that Chemnitz is among the major cities with the largest proportion of parks and green spaces may be new to many people.

Chemnitz considers itself to be the City of Modernity. Because the past and future meet here in productive tension. And because Modernity is a way of living for us. Come and see it for yourselves - after taking the tour through these pages, the best way is to see it in person. Let yourselves be surprised, discover our city.

I look forward to your visit.

Yours Barbara Ludwig Oberbürgermeisterin (Lord Mayor)