Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz Opening

living at risk

When

12.08.2025 at 18:15 Uhr

When

12.08.2025 at 18:15 Uhr

We cordially invite you, your family, and friends to the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at 6:15 p.m. at the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz.

 

The travelling exhibition “living at risk” shows the diverse and ambivalent life stories of queer people during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945. It is currently touring Germany. On this page you can find out exactly what the exhibition is about and you can find all the dates. You can visit the exhibition virtually or click through the picture gallery and the accompanying booklet to the exhibition.

The exhibition can be viewed free of charge in the auditorium of the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz from August 12 to September 14, 2025.

During the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism on 27 January 2023 in the German Bundestag, attention for the first time was on the queer victims. The historical documentary exhibition “endangered living. Queer people 1933-1945” picked up from this important signal of remembrance and made the subject of exclusion and persecution of queer people in the years 1933 – 1945 available to a wide audience.

The diverse and ambivalent life stories of queer people in the period from 1933 to 1945 are traced in the exhibition using documents, graphics, photographs and quotes. This includes previously unpublished material. The exhibition offers both a broad overview and deeper insights into the biographies of the people as well as current research results.
The exhibition makes it clear how the lives of many queer people were broken and destroyed. At the same time, it sheds light on how the remaining scope for action was used in everyday life. The exhibition does not just tell stories of persecution, but also ways of asserting oneself in an adverse reality.

Visitors encounter five subject islands in the exhibition

  • Scale and significance of the destruction of queer infrastructures
  • Exclusion from the “national community” and persecution practices
  • Self-assertion and stubbornness
  • Reasons for arrest and arrest locations (prisons, concentration camps and so-called social welfare institutions)
  • Post-1945: victims with reservations, continued persecution and emancipatory and lifeworld room for manoeuvre

The exhibition information texts are available in German and digitally also in English via QR codes.

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The houses of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/PUNCTUM/Bertram Kober

Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz

The Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz are among the largest civic art collections in Germany and cover all genres of artistic production, from painting and sculpture to graphic art and decorative art, with a special focus on textiles.

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  • Opening Hours

    Tue – Sun, public holidays 11 am – 6 pm
    closed 24., 25. & 31.12.

  • Admission

    General admission 10 Euros, reduced admission 6,50 Euros

    For children and adolescents through age 17, as well as for students of the Technical University Chemnitz, holders of a Chemnitzpass, and chaperones to severely handicapped persons, admission is always free.
    For further information regarding individual and group admission fees and combination tickets valid for more than one of the museums within the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, please see the schedule of fees (Entgeltordnung).

    Tickets
  • Museum Shop

    Publications, postcards, posters, and other merchandise are available at the ticket counter and in the museum shop.
    Orders may be e-mailed to service.kunstsammlungen@stadt-chemnitz.de or faxed to +49 (0)371 488 4498. Kindly use our order form (Bestellformular).

  • Address and Contact Information

    Theaterplatz 1, 09111 Chemnitz
    T +49 (0)371 488 4424
    kunstsammlungen@stadt-chemnitz.de

  • Accessibility

    For barrier-free access, a visitor guidance system with an inclusive floor guidance system, orientation boards with Braille and pyramid writing and an elevator at ground level to all exhibition floors are available at Theaterplatz. Further information can be found at inclusion and accessibility.