News

** 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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** Surprisingly perhaps, in recent months we have managed to have three face to face convivial gatherings: firstly we had a Reunion Dinner in July 2021 in the very pleasant outdoor terrace surroundings of the recently refurbished Eastfield Inn, Henleaze. Unfortunately some members, including the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, had to cancel due to Covid issues, but still there was a good number of us who were delighted to get together again after a gap of 18 months. We returned to the Eastfield again in November for a lively dinner and skittles evening – about 15 of us enjoyed a very...

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** We were delighted to be able to hold the AGM in October 2021 in the newly designated Hannover Room in City Hall, with the Lord Mayor, Councillor Steve Smith, presiding. At the meeting we welcomed a new Treasurer, Irena Roskiewicz, and were treated at the conclusion of the meeting to a most interesting presentation by Faye Keane, Creative Programme Lead for Young Bristol. Faye plans to lead a group of young people on a return visit to Hannover in April 2022, our anniversary year, with funding obtained from UK German Connection. She described a range of activities including photography,...

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** Crofton Gane was a man of many parts: Quaker, design pioneer, businessman, furniture salesman, philanthropist and also, in our context, one of the five men whose mission to a winter-battered Hannover in 1947 led to the creation of the Bristol-Hannover Council and one of the first and most enduring of city twinnings. Acknowledgement of Gane's full-hearted contribution to the life of Bristol has been recognised with a blue plaque at the College Green site of his furnishings showrooms. The plaque was unveiled on October 16 by Penny Gane, his grand-daughter, in the presence of around 30 representatives...

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** A City Hall ceremony on June 24th - presided over by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Steve Smith, who is ex officio president of all Bristol’s twinnings – saw him unveil two plaques in the foyer, as well as seven new door signs and framed information panels in each room about Bristol’s twin cities. The two plaques accompany the coats of arms of Bordeaux and Hannover, which were hung for the 40th anniversary of the link with those two cities. The seven meeting rooms are now identified by the twin city to which they are dedicated and the Council’s booking system is being upgraded to ensure...

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** This coming spring will see Young Bristol’s Youth Voice group visit Hannover following on from an exchange visit to Bristol in Summer 2019. The trip has been a long time in the making, but with funding secured from UK-German-Connection, we will begin linking on with our Hannoverian counterparts from February 2022. The Youth Voice group are Young Bristol’s youth advocacy group, made up of members from across our club network. The young people will initially meet online to get to know each other through games, language quizzes, and shared content such as ‘a typical day in the life...

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