Nirit Sommerfeld

I am an actress, singer, author, and—for the past year and a half—the owner of Café Julius in Schocken. Born in Israel and raised in Bavaria, I lived in Tel Aviv for a time after spending periods in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, and Rome. The European Capital of Culture brought me to Chemnitz; here, I wanted to create a place for encounter, remembrance, and learning. The property where my grandfather Julius’s house once stood—which was expropriated by the Nazis and turned into a “Jewish retirement home” before they murdered him—was meant to serve this purpose.

A life-size cardboard figure of Julius has been standing in the café at smac since October 2024; the property on the former Antonplatz remains largely unused. But in the café, I regularly host readings, music evenings, or the series “Tacheles Conversations on the Golden Sofa” with Jewish figures. There, we can speak frankly about issues that concern us as Jews here in Germany.