National Heroes – German Cultural Cities
Not another new network?! Surely there are already enough of these in existence - particularly in the field of culture? Well, apparently not – because the “National Heroes - German Cultural Cities” constitutes a truly extraordinary and unique grouping.
The national competitions for the title of European Capital of Culture have, over the last few years, become increasingly tough and intense affairs. More and more money and time are invested in order to win this particularly coveted crown.
Given this situation - which might also be regarded as a positive development - a new kind of responsibility has grown up towards the organisations that have been responsible for structuring and financing the individual candidacies. What happens when, despite the massive commitment and clever concepts, a candidate city still fails to win the title?
Sixteen cities from throughout Germany fought for the title of European Capital of Culture 2010. Through this process, all the candidate municipalities have acquired a degree of commonality: over a quite lengthy period they - like the Ruhr Metropolis - concentrated much of their effort and resources on the themes of "Europe" and "Culture".
Now these similarities are being underpinned in the "National Heroes - German Cultural Cities" network in which Augsburg, Bremen, Görlitz, Halle an der Saale, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Lübeck, Münster, Osnabrück, Potsdam and Regensburg are all participating.
As part of this collaboration, each participating German Cultural City will, in 2010, run up to two projects as part of the RUHR.2010 programme. This will give rise to a national network of Capital of Culture projects - distributed throughout Germany.
The projects of the cities are diverse indeed, extending from an international theatre festival for children, to exhibitions, music festivals and city rejuvenation processes.s they take their rightful place within the European Capital of Culture programme - former rivals transformed into partners, all with a single, common purpose.