Bristol Hannover Council

** Creative and professional writing students from the University of the West of England and members of the Bristol-Hannover exchange have taken part in a sharing memories event at City Hall, coordinated by Local Learning with the Bristol-Hannover Council.

The stories spanned the many decades of the special relationship between the two cities. They were stories of long-lasting friendships, youthful exuberance and lives rebuilt after the devastation of war.

What shone through all the memories – whatever decade they were from –  was the empathy and connection that the Bristol-Hannover exchange has nurtured between our two cities for many years. It is a programme that teaches young people how much the two cultures have in common. ‘We were like them,’ says Ian Turner who first went on the exchange in the 1970s, ‘and they were like us.’

Telling someone else’s story is a great responsibility. Last October saw the students took this responsibility seriously as the listened, transcribed and curated their interviews with great care. What resulted was a series of profiles that does justice to the people who so generously shared their time.

Their stories show in human terms how valuable the Bristol-Hannover exchange has been over the last 75 years, and how important it is that the friendship between our cities continues for generations to come.

A selection of some of the interviews can be found at: https://www.locallearning.org.uk/bristol-hannover-75/

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