Honorary citizenship of the city of Chemnitz awarded to Ingrid Mössinger

The General Director of the Chemnitz Art Collections, Dr h. c. Ingrid Mössinger, was awarded honorary citizenship at a ceremony for her services to the art collections and the city of Chemnitz. More than 500 guests attended the ceremony, including honorary citizens and representatives from politics, business, culture and society.

Dr Thomas de Maizière, a long-standing federal and state minister, gave the laudatory speech. The Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, gave a welcoming address. Ingrid Mössinger also signed the Golden Book of the City of Chemnitz.

Mayor Barbara Ludwig: "Ingrid Mössinger has taken Chemnitz into the world and brought the world to Chemnitz. This applies to the unique exhibitions, for example on Picasso, Munch, Renoir, the Peredwischniki, Andy Warhol or Bob Dylan. Over the years, Ingrid Mössinger has not only brought major exhibitions to the city, but also exquisite collections and foundations. The fact that Chemnitz is once again aware of its strengths as a creative, value-adding, modern living space is also the work of Ingrid Mössinger. With its highest honour, the city of Chemnitz says thank you for her decades of work."

Minister President Michael Kretschmer emphasised: "Ingrid Mössinger has shaped the image of Chemnitz and the attitude to life in the city. She recognised and developed the potential that exists here. The people of Chemnitz can be proud of their art collections, their city of modernity and a wonderful and inspiring new honorary citizen who has contributed to this with charm, passion and heart and soul."

Dr Thomas de Maizière: "Ingrid Mössinger has returned glamour to the city, which many outside Chemnitz considered run-down and written off after reunification. Not a glamour as a façade - but a glamour with substance, with strength, with spirit! The most important and most beautiful thing is that she never saw art and culture as elitist or an end in itself. It has always been close to her heart to make the art collections an open place of encounter and togetherness in the centre of society."

The musical finale of the ceremony was a concert by the solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Albrecht Mayer. He was accompanied on the piano by Berlin pianist Hinrich Alpers.

Reasons for the award of honorary citizenship:

Ingrid Mössinger has shaped the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz since 1996, and the art collections were named "Museum of the Year" by the art critics' association AICA in 2010. The art collections have been listed in the Blue Book of nationally significant cultural institutions in eastern Germany since 2001. In 2003, they were honoured by the "Lebendige Stadt" foundation for the best German museum concept out of 163 competitors.
In 2003, the unique collection of the Munich gallery owner Dr Alfred Gunzenhauser with more than 2,400 works of classical modern art found a home in Chemnitz. In 2007, the Gunzenhauser Museum, which was remodelled especially for the collection, was opened. Ingrid Mössinger also made an outstanding contribution to the expansion of the collection. The city also owes Ingrid Mössinger a large number of donations of works by famous artists.

The exhibitions organised by Ingrid Mössinger have often caused a sensation - also internationally: "Picasso et les femmes" (2002), Edvard Munch (1999), Lucas Cranach (2005), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (2006), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (2007), the Peredwischniki (2012), Andy Warhol (2014) and many others. She achieved a celebrated and marvelled world premiere with the first exhibition of Bob Dylan's works (2007). The number of exhibitions during Ingrid Mössinger's tenure has totalled around 170, with more than 500 artists from 45 countries shown.

The "Friends of the Chemnitz Art Collections" association alone now has more than 1,000 members, making it the association with the most members of any fine arts museum in Saxony. Making art accessible to everyone has always been one of Ingrid Mössinger's maxims - the Konrad art bus, which has been taking schoolchildren to the art collections since 2011, is a product of this aspiration that has had a lasting effect.