Peace banners are displayed at Chemnitz town hall
Photo opportunity: on 1 March, from 10 a.m., Neumarkt
On Friday, 1 March, from 10 a.m., the colourful peace banners will once again be displayed on the façade of Chemnitz Town Hall to promote the Chemnitz Peace Day on 5 March. At around 10 a.m., the caretakers of the town hall will be seen putting the finishing touches to the banners.
Gerald Richter from the citizens' initiative Aktion © and Katharina Kästel-Sasse from the Montessori School will also be available to answer questions on Neumarkt at around 10 a.m. together with some of the pupils who helped design the banners themselves.
"The interest in designing banners has grown from year to year and has long since spread beyond Chemnitz. For many years, there was only the workshop at the Montessori school. Then we also designed banners with special schools, and thanks to the Stefan Heym youth art project, we are now travelling all over Saxony. Last year, 40 new banners were created, six at André Gymnasium Chemnitz, five at Pestalozzi-Förderzentrum, ten at Gymnasium Rochlitz and seven at Gymnasium Zwönitz. With twelve new banners, the Montessori school once again contributed the largest share. The five workshops in very different schools resulted in a wide variety of opinions," says the initiator of the art project, Gerald Richter.
The banners will be displayed at the town hall, at and in the Roter Turm gallery, at the opera house and in the Jakobi church. The total number of seven-metre-long banners has thus grown to 267, which corresponds to a length of 1,778 metres. Cross banners and other formats were also designed, bringing the total length to 2,750 metres.
The Chemnitz peace banners will also be presented in the Paul Löbe House of the Federal Government from 23 to 26 May 2024, where they will be the focus of the Federal Government's ceremony and the subsequent democracy festival to mark 75 years of the Basic Law.
In 2025, the citizens' initiative Aktion © wants to achieve a Guinness World Record as the largest youth art project with the banners.
Chemnitz Peace Day
On 5 March, Chemnitz Peace Day commemorates the bombing of the city 79 years ago and all the victims of the Second World War. Every year on this day, thousands of people from Chemnitz take a stand for peace, democracy and against right-wing extremism and xenophobia. The main event on 5 March at 6 p.m. on Chemnitz Neumarkt is entitled "Menschenkinder".
Further information on the Chemnitz Peace Day can be found at
www.chemnitz.de/friedenstag
www.chemnitzer-friedenstag.de