The Application

Dresden is a unique cultural city in Europe. And at the same time it stands for a lively, contemporary culture of conflict in Europe. We wanted to build bridges and thus strengthen civil society. The old cultural city in the centre of Europe has become a stage for the conflicts that affect the future of Europe as a whole. Art and culture stand for diversity and difference. They stimulate debate and dialogue. It therefore applied to all our projects that they conduct dialogues, trigger debates, allow differences, resolve conflicts, pursue visions and thus strengthen cohesion!

Dresden 2025

For many weeks and months, the Bid Office Dresden 2025 has worked on the application together with curator Michael Schindhelm, cultural experts, stakeholders from Dresden institutions, the independent scene and citizens. We developed the main theme of our bid from all the discussion events and conversations under the working title "Culture of Togetherness":

Neue Heimat Dresden 2025

Why should Dresden become the European Capital of Culture in 2025? Just as Europe is the old continent shaped by culture, Dresden is an example of the old European city shaped by culture. But Dresden is not only exemplary for the historically grown cultural wealth, but also for the current crisis of the continent. Social tensions are unleashed on the streets, there is a constant struggle for one's own history. Dresden is looking for answers for a common future – by applying for the European Capital of Culture, we wanted to respond jointly. Together with the people of Dresden, we wanted to develop the motto "Neue Heimat Dresden 2025" as a vision, fill it with life and create a new feeling of cohesion in the city. Under the motto, the themes that cause rifts and open conflicts throughout Europe play a role: Am I ready for the technological change of my everyday world or do I reject it? Do I continue to support our basic democratic principles or do I consider them outdated? Am I a winner in economic development through globalisation or am I on the losing side? Am I willing to invite people of other origins and religions into my society or do I want to be isolated? Again and again these or similar questions lead to disputes or even violent conflicts. Under the umbrella of "Neue Heimat" we wanted to find ways and means to steer this dispute in other directions with the help of culture.

Michael Schindhelm

Curator of the Bid Office Dresden 2025

Our motto is an invitation to Dresdeners and the people in Europe and the world to help create a new home. This home will be new insofar as the people in Dresden, in Germany and in Europe will have to face challenges which globalisation brings with it with increasing complexity: These include in particular questions relating to social justice, migration, digitisation and urbanisation. This home will be new in the sense that people will not hide behind cultural traditions and political borders, but will seek answers to these questions together. We invite you to do so. The answers do not require unanimity; on the contrary, they demand diversity. This home will be new in the sense that it does not dismiss familiar concepts of homeland, but continues to shape them. After all, it will be new because it has many houses and apartments, because Dresden, Germany and the world meet in it. There can be no more important task than working on the community of a new home.

The topics of the bid:

HEIMAT

Today, Dresden is home to more than half a million people. Many of them were born here, others moved here. Dresden would not have been so rich in culture if it had not offered people from other cities and countries a home. This programme area dealt with the question of origin and affiliation, the "common ground" of human identity. The projects dealt with the interaction with history. This is more important than ever: In recent years Dresden has become a stage for those forces in Germany and Europe that reject an open and pluralistic society. The bid countered this development critically, but always in discourse. The programme was primarily aimed at younger generations who regard history as a valuable extension of their personal horizons.

East and West

The location of the city at the interface between Eastern and Western Europe was and is a relevant starting point for cultural work in Dresden. In the years of the GDR, the exchange of culture and science with other socialist countries played an important role. At the same time, Dresden has always been a destination for international cultural tourism, attracting millions of people from all over Europe and the world. However, the programme area did not only deal with East and West as location factors. The interface between the democratic Europe before 1989 and that of today can still be felt as a cultural border. The burning issues of European integration, historical and new ruptures, as well as future relations between cities such as Saint Petersburg and Coventry, which then do not longer belong to the EU and are Dresden's twin cities, were dealt with.

Power of Strangeness

This programme area dealt with the growing multicultural diversity in Dresden. While one part of society emphatically welcomes diversity, others reject it. In recent years the fronts have hardened. What role can and must culture play in this debate? The programme also looked beyond Europe: How does Dresden deal with cultural globalisation, which does not stop at the gates of the city? The Capital of Culture programme focused on projects that make it possible to network the art and creative scene beyond the Western hemisphere, and critically examined the colonial past.

Neue Heimat X-Culture

By X-Culture we meant the gradual dissolution of the boundaries between the distribution of roles between producers and recipients (participation), the fusion of off- and online reality, the growing mutual interpenetration of social fields of action such as education, sport, urban development, research and culture. This programme area was an offer to every initially local actor to join forces with others outside their own "four walls" to create prototypes of X-Culture that generate new formats, relationships, contents, competences and values both in Dresden and in other European cities and beyond.

Fair in Dresden

Municipal cultural promotion is the part of the culture budget with which independent stakeholders, groups and artists are supported. It is thus an important working basis for cultural actors who are active outside the municipal and state institutions. As in many other cities, the free cultural scene in Dresden is developing much faster than the funding instruments and budgets of cultural promotion. The mayor of culture, Annekatrin Klepsch, and the cultural administration have therefore devised a strategy with which Dresden's cultural promotion can react to developments. The concept is entitled "Fair in Dresden 2025" and is part of the bid and cultural development planning.

Bid Book

On 27 September 2019, the Bid Office Dresden 2025 sent the bid book for the title "European Capital of Culture 2025" to the Kulturstiftung der Länder under the motto "Neue Heimat Dresden 2025".

Curator Michael Schindhelm, the Bid Office Dresden 2025 and many other actors from Dresden had worked intensively on the strategy and programme in recent months. The local graphic design agency pingundpong designed the 60-page bid book according to fixed – and uniform – specifications for all applicants.

The Process

Find out more about the application process and the criteria.

Title

The title has been awarded annually since 1985. It is intended to strengthen the wealth, diversity and commonalities of cultures in Europe.

Why 2025

The order of the countries is fixed. In 2025, it is the turn of the Federal Republic of Germany again, after 1988 (West Berlin), 1999 (Weimar) and 2010 (Essen for the Ruhr area).

Candidate Cities

In 2025, a city in Slovenia and Germany will be European Capital of Culture. Eight German cities had applied. There were three applicants from Saxony.

Jury

The decision was taken by a jury of experts from all over Europe representing different cultural sectors: museums, theatres, architecture, cultural education, tourism etc.

Criteria

The programme with which the city applies should correspond to the long-term strategy of this city and should have a sustainable effect beyond the programme year.
The programme must be relevant beyond the city, have a European dimension and promote European diversity and intercultural dialogue.
The programme, with which the city applies, is intended to open up new opportunities for participation in culture, to appeal to people who have not yet been reached by the cultural offers and opportunities.

Expenses

Videos

Our Joint Vision

Filmmaker Sebastian Linda called on the Dresdeners to submit their visions of "Neue Heimat Dresden 2025" as a film clip.

Image Film: Together

Only together we can create "Neue Heimat Dresden 2025". This is also shown in our image film. Together we make music out of it.

Voices

Voices on missing the shortlist

Unfortunately, the City of Dresden did not progress to the next candidate stage in the bid for the title "European Capital of Culture 2025". After the decision of the international jury, many attentive words reached us and we would like to share a few voices with you. Let's continue to take the future of Dresden into our own hands together. Many thanks for your support!

Portrait photo of Marion Ackermann, Director-General of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, in front of Dresden's Royal Palace

Prof. Dr. Marion Ackermann

"I am personally very sorry, and we are all disappointed. But yes, it's a sign of greatness to implement the best things anyway. That's what we're all looking forward to and we're all behind you."

Director-General of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the whole team of SKD

Gwendolin Kremer

Office for Academic Heritage of TU Dresden

The Office for Academic Heritage with the Altana Gallery of the TU Dresden shares your regret about Dresden missing the shortlist in the bid for the European Capital of Culture 2025. We would like to thank you very much for the exciting and enriching cooperation in the context of our lead project. Thanks to your support, we were able to break new ground in museum presentation with the discursive format DEAR HUMANS and to embed it in the scientific discussion on the topic of Artificial Intelligence! The positive energy that you have released with all the projects around Dresden 2025 will continue to have an effect in new and already established contexts!

Dr. Cornelia Mothes

Institute of Media and Communication of TU Dresden

We are very sorry that Dresden did not make it to the shortlist, but we hope that the wonderful projects initiated by this process and your active support can still be continued!

Prof. Dr. Sander Münster

Junior Professor for Digital Humanities of Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Secretary of the Time Machine Organisation

I'm very sorry to hear that. Nevertheless and especially: you have done a great job as a team over the past months. I would like to thank you very much and I'm looking forward to everything else!

Andreas Nattermann

Managing Director and Artistic Director of Societaetstheater Dresden

Yeah, we didn't make it. But I would like to plead that the journey we have begun should be continued. After all, we owe a lot to the bid. I believe that a lot has happened in the last few months that otherwise would not have happened in this city. In my opinion, this applies just as much to the willingness of many Dresdeners to get involved for and in this city as to the large number of projects that have been started or completed. The bid has brought us forward, so let's use this and continue along the path we have chosen.

Felix Räuber

"My team and I had firmly expected Dresden to make it to the next round, so the disappointment was correspondingly great. After a few weeks, however, I now see missing the shortlist as an opportunity for Dresden's cultural landscape to move closer together and to better network and support each other in the spirit of the Capital of Culture bid. I'm counting on a 'now more than ever' mood that can ignite new energies and advance the city with impulses and ideas. Either way, in my view, the challenge remains that we as a society should not break apart, it doesn't matter whether as a future Capital of Culture or as a historically grown cultural metropolis. As cultural workers, we are more than ever called upon to get involved in the cause. It may sound strange, but in the end I feel even more motivated to get involved for my hometown."

Singer, Composer and Producer

Gunda Röstel

"It was with disappointment that I took note of the jury's decision and I regret it very much. Dresden would have deserved the title on the basis of the concept developed by the city and the European Capital of Culture Bid Office team. Nevertheless, I hope and wish that good ideas will be taken up and implemented. It was a pleasure for me to support our city in a completely different context, thank you very much for this opportunity."

Commercial Managing Director of Dresden City Drainage GmbH

Philipp Schaller

"Thanks for your effort and work! I am glad that I, as a rather European Capital of Culture sceptic, was allowed to be part of this project on one or two occasions! And I see what you have initiated – and most importantly, that you have countered the confused Monday strollers with something positive and good. I hope our city will continue to benefit from this for a long time to come!"

Political Cabaret Artist

Carena Schlewitt

"The decision was really bitter and we all carry the disappointment with us for a while. I would like to thank you all very much for the work you have done over the past months, some people have worked for years. You have not only worked hard, but also put your heart and soul into it. Much of it will remain and, above all, I think we must keep going – now more than ever. We should continue to work on the questions, topics and projects that have been started and show that the application was meant seriously. It's all about the future of the cultural city Dresden!"

Artistic Director of Hellerau - European Centre for the Arts

Christophe Steyer

"The bid of the city of Dresden for the 'European Capital of Culture 2025' was an absolute enrichment for our Institut français. We have accomplished great projects! It's a real pity that Dresden did not make it to the next round, as this bid has been a cultural boost for all people involved at all levels. It was fun to be a part of it and to have contributed to the diversity of the projects. We would therefore like to thank you for the cooperation, especially for the 'Fête de la Musique meets Europe' and the support for the project 'Beethoven with us'. It remains to be hoped that the spirit and the ideas that have emerged around this bid will continue for a while."

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