News

** One evening recently at Stoke Lodge, Ann Kennard gave a very entertaining talk to an interested audience. Having had close ties with Germany and its border countries for many years she was delighted last year to be able to visit East Germany, the former GDR, at the invitation of Christine and Jürgen Heck, with whom she and Tony had stayed in Hannover. Despite her many years of connections with Germany through her studies and work she had not had the opportunity to visit East Germany on more than a couple of occasions. This she was keen to rectify and when the chance presented itself...

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** Margit Spitta, who died recently, was a long-time and very active member of the committee of our partner organisation, the Hannover-Bristol Gesellschaft.  Margit was a very lively and imaginative person, who spoke excellent English.  She ran the Gesellschaft’s conversation classes “Speaking English is Fun” for many years.  She and Ann Kennard discovered that they had both attended the Interpreting Institute at Heidelberg University, possibly at the same time.  Ann and Tony stayed several times in their house with its welcoming balcony, where we enjoyed many a glass of wine, and Margit’s...

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** On Wednesday, March 19, Bristol Hannover Council's Ann Kennard convened a host of groups and individuals from Bristol engaged in teaching and learning the German language for a meeting over Kaffee and Kuchen in the Folk House with the GermanAmbassador Miguel Berger. The Ambassador visited the city to celebrate #ShoutOutForGerman, a campaign to highlight the benefits of learning the German language. A mixed group of all ages and levels of language proficiency drawn from the population of Bristol succeeded in convincing the Ambassador that German is alive and kicking in the city. In...

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** On Monday March 3 the BHC and its guests gathered once again at the Black Swan for the traditional celebration of Rosenmontag. Ann Kennard explained that the occasion traditionally marked the start of Lent. The Lord Mayor and his consort joined more than 30 members and friends for our celebration and a good time was had by all. Everyone enjoyed the German-style buffet, and chatted and drank while the Karnevalsmusik played and pictures from Germany with merrymakers in colourful costumes came through on the TV. Our German guests guided us through traditional Karneval songs, whilst...

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** On February 27 BHC members linked up with the German Historical Institute in London for a talk by Professor Maren Röger (Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe) on (Cold) War Games: Scenarios on Both Sides of the Iron Curtain. Germany was and remains to this day a country where games particularly board games are very popular.  Games in West Germany were often played by all the family but In East Germany they were mainly designed to educate children. During the Cold War these games took on a deeper ideological meaning. From the 1960s onwards in East Germany games...

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** Former BHC chair Ann Kennard was invited recently to an event at the German Embassy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the destruction and ultimate journey of renewal of the city of Dresden. After an introduction by the ambassador, Miguel Berger, the Dean of Windsor, Dr Christopher Cocksworth, recollected his time as Bishop of Coventry from 2008-2023, during which time there were many visits of youth groups, school and cultural groups to and from Coventry’s partner city, Dresden. . Ambassador Berger speaking . The two main speakers were Edmund de Waal, artist, potter and author,...

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** BHC has relaunched its Facebook page. Catch up on all our forthcoming activities and find out more about the things you missed. For all things Hannover related in Bristol and most things German follow BHC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=bristol%20hannover%20council

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** On February 25, financial journalist Wolfgang Munchau talked to the members of the British German Association about his recent book 'Kaput!' on the decline of the German economy.   Wolfgang mostly avoided re-telling the now familiar critique of Germany in the Merkel era: overdependence on Russian oil and gas, too focused on boosting exports of machinery to China, insufficient investment in critical infrastructure . He timed the most recent decline from 2018. Although Covid masked the effects, stagnation is now incontrovertible. In a world which has rapidly embraced digital Germany has remained...

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** BHC members were invited, on Thursday February 20, to an online book talk with Herman Beck on Before the Holocaust: Antisemitic Violence and the Reaction of German Elites and Institutions during the Nazi Takeover. The  event was jointly organised by the Leo Baeck Institute and the Wiener Holocaust Library. Hermann Beck, a Professor of History at the University of Miami, has spent the best part of 14 years researching the topic in archives all over Germany. He documented  a great wave of violence against Jews in the Spring of 1933 when the Nazis came to power. This violence has previously...

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FEB 18: Lucy Noakes (Essex) and Frank Trentmann (Birkbeck) in conversation at the GHIL . ** Despite some initial challenges with the technology, several BHC members were able to participate in this excellent session with two leading historians from Britain and German contrasting the memories of the war in both countries. Lucy Noakes characterised popular memory in the UK as 'resentful winners'-we were ostensibly the victors but had not come out on top economically like Germany. Frank Trentmann said that memory in Germany is complicated by the division of Germany. In West Germany the central...

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