World Twin Cities Day is celebrated on Sunday 26 April. It was introduced by the World Association of Twin Cities (FMCU) to focus on the cooperation between cities once a year.
Chemnitz has a total of twelve twin cities. The longest connection has been with Tampere in Finland since 1961, while Chemnitz has had its most recent connection with Kiryat Bialik in Israel since 2022. Chemnitz has four non-European partnerships with Akron in the USA, Taiyuan in China, Timbuktu in Mali and Kiryat Bialik in Israel. In Europe, Chemnitz's twin cities include Ljubljana (Slovenia), Łódź (Poland), Manchester (UK), Mulhouse (France), Tampere (Finland), Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic) and Volgograd (Russia). Cooperation with Volgograd has been suspended since February 2022.
The following projects were or are planned with the twin cities this year
Mulhouse: On the occasion of the French Days, artist Lili Terrana visited Chemnitz in January and invited citizens and schoolchildren to take part in drawn tours of the city.
Ljubljana: The partnership between Chemnitz and Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, a delegation from Chemnitz will be travelling to Ljubljana in May.
Manchester: Chemnitz is taking part in a business trip to the British twin cities of Chemnitz (Manchester), Leipzig (Birmingham) and Dresden (Coventry) as part of the Saxon city network. The trip will take place in June. Interested companies can still register.
Ústí nad Labem: Cooperation with the administration in the Czech twin city is to be intensified from September. If the funds applied for from the Interreg programme are approved, employees will spend three years learning from and with each other.
Düsseldorf: During the autumn holidays, two to three trainees from Chemnitz and Düsseldorf will once again swap jobs to work in the twin city for a fortnight.
Through town twinning, citizens and administrations of the different cities are invited to exchange ideas and find out what they have in common. In addition, town twinning is intended to promote values such as peace, the rule of law and international exchange not only at national but also at municipal level.
Exchange at municipal level
There is a lively exchange between the twin cities at municipal level. In the year of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, delegations repeatedly visited Chemnitz to exchange ideas. The highlight was the twin city conference in May 2025, where the cities exchanged expertise on the topics of culture and urban development and agreed on further cooperation.
Realising your own project
Associations, initiatives, institutions and citizens are invited to keep contacts with the twin cities alive with their own projects. The City of Chemnitz supports this exchange with active funding. Anyone with an idea for a project can apply for a grant of up to 5,000 euros throughout the year.
Last year, the City of Chemnitz invested more than 32,000 euros in civic projects. Most of these projects were realised with Düsseldorf (six), Ljubljana (four), Tampere and Łódź (three projects each). Almost half of the approved applications were related to culture, followed by sport and networking. For example, a choir exchange with the university choir in Manchester, the summer philharmonic with a music school from Łódź and a table tennis tournament with participants from Düsseldorf were co-financed.
www.chemnitz.de/partnerstaedte
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