The applications for the Capital of Culture status 2025 have been sent. Next to eight German applicant cities Nuremberg, Gera, Hanover, Chemnitz, Hildesheim, Dresden, Magdeburg, the small city of Zittau in teh far southeast of Saxony comes across as a surprise. Her application as a cultural region in the three-country region and the east Saxon cultural area, however, is loaded with convincing cross-border and cross-cultural, truly European concept – in contrast to the cities that are culturally dominant (Dresden) or rather unexiting (Hanover).

The application had to be submitted in English, the extensive bid book was translated by Bochert Translations.