Blog Archives

Happy Christmas and a better New Year from Hans of Hannover!

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Dear friends in Bristol, With this letter I will take you on a sightseeing tour to Hannover’s fountains. This is to maintain the Hannover-Bristol connection in these bad times. I hope you will enjoy the article and you will get an appetite to visit the fountains during your next stay in Hannover. First I will introduce you fountains in Hannover’s City Centre, maybe you know them from a visit in Hannover. Let’s start with the Leafs(Blätter)- or Cimiotti-Fountain. Emil Cimiotti created this bronze fountain with different leafs. The water comes out of four wells on the top of the fountain....

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This year, Germany’s National Day of Mourning or Volkstrauertag was held on Sunday November 15th, to commemorate the bombing of Coventry on that date in 1940. The remembrance ceremony was held in the Bundestag in Berlin, and there was a photograph of Coventry’s bombed-out cathedral in the background. We were alerted to this by our friend Thomas Hermann, mayor of Hannover, telling us that it would be broadcast on ZDF, so it was possible to watch it via satellite TV. Prince Charles was the guest of honour and gave a full and heartfelt speech on British-German friendship, alternating between German...

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On November 12th, in Remembrance week, we had a moving and appropriate online event, which actually should have taken place at the end of the Mayors for Peace exhibition in February, but had to be postponed.  Bristol actor David Collins read poems based on recent conflicts: "What War Does to Us: 1914 until now".  David started the programme with poems from the First World War (the so-called 'Great War'), the horrific starting point of modern total war, with poems of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and others, and then went on, with new voices, some well known and some not, continuing the same...

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German Ambassador HE Andreas Michaelis undertook a two day programme in Bristol accompanied by his wife, Frau Heike Michaelis who is a teacher and by the German Consul General Hans-Guenther Loeffler. The delegation visited Airbus and then had a tour of the SS GB with German speaking head curator Joanna Mathers. The Ambassador learnt about the role of the German salvage team in rescuing the ship in the Falklands. This year is the 50th anniversary of the ship returning to Bristol. BHC Chair Ann Kennard and BAGS Secretary Jon Darch joined them for tea after the visit. The Ambassador had dinner with...

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Bristol artists Miss Hazard and The Hass took part virtually in the Hannover Urban Culture Festival last weekend. The artists were chosen from a short list kindly put together by Steve Hayles from Bristol UPFest. An artist from Hannover’s Polish twin town Poznan was also invited. Hannover’s Kulturamt covered the costs and the artists produced special pieces and sent them to Hannover to be included in the Kabine arts centre exhibition. This is the second year Bristol artists have taken part in the festival and everyone hopes next year more stars from Bristol will be there in person.        

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And Launch of the Celebration of 800 years of the Hospital of St Mark, now the Lord Mayor’s Chapel 1220-2020 On Sunday 1st March, BHC Chair Ann Kennard and Secretary Lynne Evans were honoured to attend the Lord Mayor’s Annual Civic Service, which had a very special significance this year, at the start of the 800th anniversary of the Lord Mayor’s Chapel. The Lord Mayor entered the Chapel with the Sword Bearer and Mace Escort provided by the Avon Fire and Rescue Service. The Lord Mayor welcomed the congregation to this historic ceremony, although she was sad to have to mention that the beautiful...

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On Monday February 24th we had our now traditional Karneval celebration, otherwise known as Rosenmontag! We were delighted to welcome the Lord Mayor, Cllr Jos Clark, once again, and as the photos show, she and everyone else had a great time, singing Karneval songs, some of us wearing funny hats, eating delicious German food and enjoying ourselves before the privations of Lent (for some of us) set in!

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An art exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons signed by the USA, the then Soviet Union and the UK in 1968, was opened on February 3rd by Mayor Marvin Rees at the Vestibules, City Hall. The exhibition was initiated by the Mayor of Hiroshima, site of one of two nuclear bomb attacks in 1945, working with its (and our) partner city Hannover, and it has travelled around the 50 Mayors for Peace cities over the past two years. The concept of the Stuttgart artist Klaudia Dietewich is to show small everyday traces of human activity in these...

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We were delighted to be able to arrange for the Lord Mayor, Cllr Jos Clark, to visit the Bauhaus Exhibition, which was earlier reported after the Evening with Crofton Gane in October.  The Lord Mayor was most interested in this important aspect of Bristol’s artistic history.  After an introduction to the present day gallery by Julia Donnelly, the Centre Manager, we were given a fascinating history by Chris Yeo first of the building on Park Row, which used to be the confectionery shop for the Princes Theatre, which was sadly destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.  Ken Stradling, a lifetime...

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