Blog Archives

** The visit to which we had all been looking forward for so long, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Bristol's partnership with Hannover, started a little earlier, with a ‘prequel’. This was the great idea of Hannover landscape gardener Joerma Biernath, to bring a barrel of his Hannover Gin – the contents to be sold for charity - all the way from Hannover, along with a tree to be planted in the Bristol University Botanic Garden, carried in a Second World War wooden German Navy training boat. The ‘Spirit of Niedersachsen’ braved the weather of North Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium...

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** Helen Wilson and Luke Antysz (RISE Youth Dance directors) travelled to Hannover between April 12-15 to meet German partners at the Community Centre Linden, youth projects City of Hannover, and Twinning Cities/Hannover, after numerous online meetings initiated by Alix Hughes. The purpose of this research trip was for the partners to meet and arrange another visit in August. In August RISE Directors will take a group of young dancers to Hannover, to collaborate with young dancers there and create a performance as part of the 75th twinning anniversary celebrations. A key component of the research...

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** Having made the crossing from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, we arrived in Lingen, Germany (close to the border with the Netherlands) on Thursday evening where we joined seven members of Linden Rowing Club (Hannover). Following a meal and catching up with old friends, we turned in for an early night. Friday morning saw the start of two and a half days intensive training camp on the Dortmund-Ems Kanal. Linden had towed boats over from Hannover for us to row in. Our goal was to trial a number of composite crew combinations ready to race at the World Masters Rowing Championships in Libourne...

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** A barrel of gin has come all the way from Hannover, Germany, as a token of friendship between Hannover and Bristol in their 75th anniversary year. Since April it has been carried on the Second World War training boat “Spirit of Niedersachsen” (to be moored along from M-Shed near The Buttery), in a non-profit venture by the initiator Joerma Biernath to raise funds for the Invictus Games and the German War Graves Commission. The photo below shows the boat when she arrived at Tower Bridge in London. The boat was launched in November 2021 by Prince Heinrich of Hannover, Hannover Bürgermeister...

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** We said a sad farewell on June 6 to our stalwart Twinnings Officer, Alix Hughes, at City Hall, after 30 years of intensive work to support Bristol’s seven twinnings. For most of that time Alix had been working outside the City Council as Twinnings Coordinator, funded by the Council, but from 2016 he became a Council Officer.  This was most helpful in cementing the relationship between the seven associations, staffed by volunteers, and the City Council. Shelley Nania of the International Office and Derek Pickup, Chair of Bristol International Twinnings Association, spoke warmly of Alix’s...

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** Our first visible twinning activity for the 75th Anniversary year was to welcome two graffiti artists from Hannover to Bristol for Upfest, Europe’s largest graffiti festival. Dast  (Instagram das.t.ea)  has, since the 1990s, enjoyed the old-school style of the interaction of letters and characters, using colours and joining others to create. Madina Saifallah (Instagram: madinasaif) usually works as a lone wolf, watching how lines slowly, slowly form a shape.  As she is originally from Afghanistan her picture shows the plight of the country under the watchful eyes of the Taliban. As...

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** Helga Wawra, the longest-serving and heart and soul of the Hannover-Bristol Gesellschaft, received the Bristol Lord Mayor’s International Medal in May. Helga, now in her 80s, made a special trip to receive this honour, with her partner Wilhelm Knicker, and was delighted to visit the Mansion House again, which she has visited on so many occasions in the past, when she came with the Hannover delegations. Helga is the one person who remembers the time after the Second World War, when the population of Hannover was at starvation point, and where many families did not have shoes to wear,...

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** Helen Wilson and Luke Antysz (RISE Youth Dance Directors) travelled to Hannover between April 12-15 to meet German partners at the Community Centre Linden, Youth projects City of Hannover, and Twinning cities/Hannover, following numerous online meetings, initiated by Alix Hughes. The purpose of this research trip was for the partners to meet and arrange plans for another visit in August 2022. In August RISE Directors will take a group of young dancers to Hannover, to collaborate with young dancers there and create a performance as part of the 75th twinning anniversary celebrations. A key component...

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** For some 13 may be an unlucky number but it was a happy one on February 28 when members and friends were able once more to celebrate Rosenmontag together. Venue was the Klosterhaus restaurant in Quakers Friars. The site is the remains of a Dominican friary, Blackfriars, which was established by Maurice de Gaunt in the early 13th century. The Hannover Room was an appropriate exclusive salon for the latest in the revived social programme as restrictions continued to be eased after the Covid-19 lockdowns and group event controls. Last July saw a Reunion Dinner followed up in November,...

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** Having given two enlightening presentations on the run-up to the recent formation of the new German government, Dr Mark Allinson and Dr Christophe Fricker of University of Bristol gave us an informative and entertaining presentation on the new political landscape in Germany, in some contrast to the situation in the UK. The most evident change from the past is the fact that there is now effectively a six-party system in Germany, so that the former Volksparteien (catch-all) parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD no longer command the large majority of the votes (as the Conservatives and Labour still...

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