Which changes were sustainable? Which projects were unsuccessful?
The investments in the infrastructure – we still draw on them today. Especially from the high-quality tourism infrastructure, which was also created by private investments. The acceptance of tourists in the city and the location of Weimar on the tourist map has of course been extremely sustainable.
Things have indeed failed. There was a project that provoked popular resistance. The plan was for a well-known artist to redesign the historic taxiway. There was actually a citizens’ initiative against the redesign. And today, unfortunately, it’s still just a parking lot.
In retrospect: How do you rate the success of the “Capital of Culture” project?
For Weimar it was a real success, both internally and externally. The city has received an incredible boost in development. We got on a worldwide map and internally it confirmed the Weimarer. They are very proud of their city. And they also know why.
If Weimar were to be named “Capital of Culture” again, what would you do differently?
I think we would involve even more local partners intensively. That worked really well in 1999. There are partnerships that are still going strong today. I would probably make sure that we set a few more special, sustainable tourism themes in this whole firework of major events. Not that anything went wrong back then. But we now have new cultural themes, such as the Bauhaus. 20 years later we have a new Bauhaus Museum.
What would we do differently today? I would have liked to mistake such an ambitious project as the double Goethehaus, which only stood for this one year, for Weimar.
But at the end of the day, we still have that title, it’s not being revoked. We are no longer a European Capital of Culture, but a European City of Culture.
How do you see the projects in Chemnitz?
I’ve looked at a few things. I became aware of the apple tree project because there was a debate about it. It’s a great idea, but it’s something that actually requires a lot of communication. As is so often the case when it comes to participatory projects. It is indeed excellent and good to involve the whole city society so that it becomes a festival for the whole city and not just for the visitors. Then there will be effects for Chemnitz, as well as for Weimar, for the next few years. I wish that for Chemnitz. It’s a huge opportunity.
We will be there with a joint project when Chemnitz presents itself at the Germany Travel Mart, the largest international tourist workshop in 2024, which is deliberately taking place in Chemnitz in the run-up to the year 2024 as a city of culture. We will revive our tourism cooperation with Henry van de Velde – the Belgian artist who headed the art school in Weimar as a forerunner of the Bauhaus and designed the Villa Esche in Chemnitz.