European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 in space
Astronaut meets nutcracker from the Ore Mountains on board the ISS
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is due to launch into space at 7.21 a.m. on Sunday, 31 October. On board the International Space Station ISS, he will meet the Erzgebirge travelling nutcracker "Wilhelm" from the Füchtner workshop in Seiffen. The nutcracker already flew into space in August with the help of the Chemnitz team for the European Capital of Culture 2025. The encounter will be celebrated in Seiffen on Sunday morning.
It is intended as a greeting from the region to all countries around the world and the 33 other municipalities in the Ore Mountains and Central Saxony that have joined forces in the regional programme of the European Capital of Culture 2025 to form the Purple Path. The celebration begins on Sunday at 6.40 am in the Seiffner Bergkirche. Pastor Michael Harzer will accompany the "Cosmic Kiss" space mission with a divine blessing. Afterwards, the launch will be broadcast live by Matthias Maurer, complemented by a colourful programme.
Background: Wilhelm, the travelling miniature nutcracker, already flew on the CRS 23 transport shuttle on 29 August. Wilhelm will now meet astronaut Matthias Maurer in the space station to accompany him on his mission and talk to him about God and the world, space, the moon and the stars. The Nutcracker will later greet people along the Christmas-lit Purple Path with its 33 towns and villages in the Chemnitz cultural region.
With the decline of tin mining towards the end of the 17th century, many miners became unemployed and reinvented themselves as producers of wooden toys. The earliest engineering skills, water-powered hammer mills and huge hammers used to hammer minerals out of the stone were turned from wood. Tyre turning was also invented. One of the innovators was Gotthelf Friedrich Füchtner, a carpenter who was often unemployed in winter and who was already selling wooden toys at the Dresden Strietzel market in 1809.
In 1870, Wilhelm Friedrich Füchtner made the first nutcracker turned from a single piece of wood, as it is known today. His great-great-great-grandson Markus Füchtner is continuing this tradition. In 2016, he developed the nutcracker Wilhelm, which is only 15 centimetres tall and named after his ancestor. Since then, he has been touring the world with Füchtner's friends. To date, the little travelling nutcracker has travelled to more than 50 countries on all continents of the world. The only thing missing was outer space - a dream that is now coming true.
This dream is also being nurtured by another maker on the Purple Path: space travel expert Tasillo Römisch, who is based in the university town of Mittweida. The former GDR citizen discovered his love of space travel when American astronauts landed on the moon in 1969. Today, with his space museum and company established in Mittweida, he is well connected to the national and international space scene and was thus able to bring the little travelling nutcracker Wilhelm together with Matthias Maurer and his "Cosmic Kiss" expedition.