Bristol Hannover Council

** Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit (October 3, 1990) was the day when Germany became one country for the first time since 1945 but is also important as part of a wider sequence of events that ended the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Our committee member, Kai von Pahlen, attended the Cardiff celebrations of the Day of German Unity with the First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan MS, German Ambassador Miguel Berger and German honorary consul in Wales Marlies Hoecherl.

Kai was pleased to learn more about the Welsh-German twinning connections, including between Cardiff and Stuttgart, the Welsh capital city and the German car capital city (Autohauptstadt) respectively, and share information about our own twinning arrangements in Bristol.

All the speeches were inspiring, especially when Botschafter Berger recalled how times were very different when the Cold War finally ended. The West German band, the Scorpions, perhaps put it best when they released their most recognised hit, the Wind of Change, a message of hope when people everywhere dared to dream of peace.

Today, it is important for the UK and Germany to stand together in these challenging times, as friends and allies, to help promote peace around the world. We must not take peace for granted and remember what it was like when we didn’t have it.

                                                                                                                                                                     KAI VON PAHLEN

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