Art and Culture

The Chemnitz art collections, the opera house, the Industrial Museum, the Villa Esche and the "DAStietz" Cultural Centre are familiar names across Germany.

The treasures in the Chemnitz art collection - 1,500 exhibits of mainly Expressionist art - include the second-largest collection of works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

Outstanding exhibitions regularly attract visitors from Germany and abroad: over the past few years, for example, there have been exhibitions of works by Edvard Munch, Lucas Cranach the Elder or the much acclaimed "Picasso et les femmes" exhibition.

Chemnitz has underlined its importance as a centre of culture by purchasing the "Gunzenhauser Collection", the largest private collection of classical modernist paintings in Germany.

The "specials", the Saxon Mozart Festival and the Europe's largest "Splash" hip-hop and reggae festival are just as much a regular feature of Chemnitz's cultural life as the thriving jazz, rock and cabaret scene.