On Saturday, 9 May, night owls and anyone interested in art and culture are once again invited to explore Chemnitz's museum landscape. The detailed programme is now available at www.chemnitz.de/museumsnacht and in the Museum Night 2026 event app at www.chemnitz.de/mn-programm
From 6 pm to 1 am, a total of 37 museums, institutions and galleries will be offering more than 270 different programme items: from exhibitions and guided tours to concerts and workshops. Programmes for children, young people and families start at 4 pm.
This year, the ZeitWerkStadt adventure museum in Frankenberg is taking part alongside the Chemnitz museum landscape and will be opening its doors from 10 am to 10 pm. The NSU Documentation Centre Offener Prozess, which opened last May, and the Hartmannfabrik, which is making a special contribution with a look back at the Capital of Culture year and an outlook on the legacy of Chemnitz 2025, will be taking part in the special programme for the first time.
Those interested in culture can experience the museums in a different light at various locations. For example, the exhibition "Threads - Verflechtungen", which opens the day before at the smac - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz, shows the networks of 25 Jewish families who once lived in Chemnitz, while various members of the museum's staff will be DJing for 30 minutes each in the foyer of the museum from 9 pm. In the Stasi records archive, filmmaker Esther Zimmering will tell the story of her Jewish family in the GDR. After her 30-minute film "Come on, let's fly over the Brandenburg Gate", she will be available for a discussion with the audience.* The short film "Kippa" will be shown several times in the Klaffenbach moated castle, while the Industrial Museum invites visitors to candlelight concerts every hour from 7 to 10 p.m. in cooperation with the Municipal Music School and the German Games Museum offers a children's book and hands-on exhibition on Jewish life entitled "What's that on your head", among other things.
And if you're still not tired after visiting the museums, you can round off the night at the after-show party from 11 pm at Weltecho. Museum Night ticket holders receive free admission to this event.
Programme:
"Tacheles!" is the motto of this year's Museum Night - in keeping with the Year of Jewish Culture in Saxony. Tacheles means speaking plainly - between guests and the people behind the collections, between past and present, between city and region. The aim is to allow different perspectives and make it possible to experience museums as spaces in which history is researched, the present is discussed and the future is developed. Under the programme item "Talk to me", the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, for example, are offering Q&A sessions with live speakers in some of their museums.
Please note: If there is a lot of interest, there may be waiting times or limited availability of programme items.
In the programme booklet, which will be available as a bilingual brochure in the institutions from Monday, as well as in the event app at www.chemnitz.de/mn-programm, guests with mobility impairments can find information on disabled access to the participating museums and institutions. Offers for people with sensory impairments and multilingual offers are also highlighted.
Tickets:
Tickets can be purchased in advance online at www.chemnitz.de/tickets_museumsnacht and at all advance booking offices. The Museum Night ticket is available for 12 euros (concessions 6 euros) or as a family ticket for 24 euros. Children up to school age are admitted free of charge. It is recommended that tickets are purchased online in advance.
Mobility to the Museum Night:
With the transport companies of the Central Saxony Transport Association (VMS), the Museum Night 2026 can be conveniently explored by public transport.
The ticket is also valid as a combined ticket from 9 May, 9 am, until 4 am the following day as a ticket on all public transport in the VMS network area as well as on the six shuttle express tours. The Augustusburg cable car and the Fichtelberg railway are excluded.
A comprehensive mobility programme will also be available this year. The buses for tours 2 to 4 will meet at fixed times at the central departure point on Brückenstraße (Stadthalle bus stop, in front of the Karl Marx Monument), making it easy to change buses.
All departure times of the shuttle-extratours as well as the extension of bus route 32 are displayed in the timetable information.
All information on the programme, transport connections in the VMS network area, the shuttle service offered by mobility partner CVAG, advance booking offices and regulations on discounts and conditions of carriage can be found in the programme booklet, at www.chemnitz.de/museumsnacht and in the event app at www.chemnitz.de/mn-programm.
The media pack for media representatives can be downloaded at www.chemnitz.de/museumsnacht-medienpaket
Museum Night 2026 in Chemnitz and the cultural region is supported by Sparkasse Chemnitz, eins energie in sachsen GmbH & Co KG, LICHTBLICKE - Gesellschaft für visuelle Werbung, CVAG, VMS and Städtische Theatern Chemnitz.
The participating museums and venues:
TIETZ Museum of Natural History Chemnitz
Museum of Natural History Chemnitz - excavation site "Window into the history of the earth"
New Saxon Gallery
Stefan Heym Forum
City Library
Baumgarten-Wölfert memorial exhibition Grüna
German SPIELEmuseum
Ebersdorf School Museum
Chemnitz Industrial Museum
Art collections at the theatre square
St Peter's Church
Gunzenhauser Museum
Chemnitz Castle Hill Museum
Chemnitz Castle Church
Henry van de Velde Museum / Villa Esche
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House
Rabenstein Castle
Kaßberg Prison Learning and Memorial Centre
Museum for Saxon Vehicles Chemnitz
Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf railway site
smac - State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz
smac - State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz - "Karree 72"
Chemnitz Tram Museum
Klaffenbach moated castle
Federal Archives - Stasi Records Archive Chemnitz
Hartmann Factory
Mittelbach local history centre
Open trial - an NSU documentation centre
Red Tower Chemnitz
Saxon State Archives - Chemnitz State Archives
Study rooms of the Marianne Brandt Society
Petrol station project room
and
Experience museum ZeitWerkStadt Frankenberg.
*PMchanged on 29.04.2026
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