On 3 October 2026, something special happened. More than 2,000 people gathered in the Altmarkt in Zeitz. Then the town began to sing. Not as a political rally. Not as a celebration with a message. But as an attempt, for one evening, to create something that has become difficult to achieve in everyday life: a sense of community.
The city opera “STIMMEN”, a project by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation as part of the NEB_PROJEKT ZEKIWA Zeitz Real-World Laboratory (RZZ), turned Zeitz into a stage and its citizens into performers. A bird call rang out from the town hall tower. Choirs sang from windows, motorbikes circled round a fourteen-year-old drummer. A Ukrainian choir sang over the Altmarkt. An operatic voice replied from a farm trailer. Bells, organ, cello, saxophones, the fire brigade, children, local clubs and spectators all became part of a shared musical score. Sounds that gave even the cobblestones goosebumps. This sense of togetherness breathed new life into empty houses and, for the finale, filled the entire St Nicholas’ Church with singing, including from the audience.
“The silence was filled with sound”, said Karin Kretzschmar, a member of the “Celebrate” gospel choir in Zeitz.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced Zeitz like this before; it was so lively, so open and so filled with music”, says Varvara Kyrychenko, a member of the Ukrainian choir and the senior school choir at the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium.
“The city wasn’t a place where different people simply lived side by side. It was a place where they did things together. The unique, euphoric atmosphere of that evening is hard to describe. You had to be there. People stopped in their tracks, joined in, sang, clapped. Choirs rose to new heights. Strangers found the same rhythm,” said artist Lutz-Rainer Müller and musician Nici Palm, the project’s initiators.
For a moment, the city was filled with unity. Not harmony, but a multitude of voices that held the city together. For the question posed by ‘STIMMEN’ was, ultimately, a very simple one: how can a city, with all its different memories, fears, hopes and contradictions, re-engage in dialogue with one another? It took one evening to find an answer. Perhaps that is not enough. But perhaps it is a start. What is certain is that, on that evening, some of the city’s scars were filled with new, positive emotions. The shared experiences, the weeks of preparation and the many jam sessions in the run-up to the event created moments of encouragement whose impact extends beyond that single evening.
Source: RZZ press release dated 14 October 2026
Photos: Thomas Meyer
