News

BHC member Colin Evans gave a second talk in his series on art in the early 20th century, this time concentrating on the infamous exhibition put on by Hitler on ‘Degenerate Art’ (Entartete Kunst) in Munich in 1937. Hitler had rounded up and confiscated much of the Expressionist art in Germany’s museums, considered by the Nazi party to be degenerate and likely to insult and corrupt society, and exhibited it as a warning. In fact a million people saw the exhibition in the first 6 weeks, and overall 2 million in the four months of the exhibition. This was art which was avant-garde, whereas the Great...

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A lovely afternoon was spent recently with many Bristol-Hannover twinning participants sharing their memories, stories and first impressions of Hannover (and something about Bristol’s history as well) with students from Fairfield High School. Building on the original Music for Shoes initiative of 1947, students from Bristol and Hannover secondary schools will use the memories and stories collected to inform their work when composing music and swapping decorated shoes for a final performance in Colston Hall in December 2017. A big Danke Schoen to Ruth at Myers-Insole, Sharon at Fairfield, Debbie...

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Congratulations to the Bristol Hannover team – this year’s winners of the coveted Paul Garland Trophy The quiz was a close fought affair with the six rounds of questions covering anything from Europe to Chickens! – four teams (BBP, BHC, BOA, BLB) took part while BCP volunteers ran the event very well. Thanks to Eric for being the quizmaster, Chris for the scoreboard and John for the questions as well as Trish for moral support. Emergency salads were rushed in to save the vegetarians while Hannover cruised to victory after early leaders Beira started worrying they might have to organise...

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Later this year it is hoped that 2 exhibitions will be held as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations – the first is to bring the ‘Honouring Esther’ Holocaust exhib ition from Bath – BHC supported this project, which concerned the re-creation of a Death march of women from Hannover to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in February 1945. The second is to bring an exhibition first shown in Hannover in 2012, compiled by our good friend Helga Wawra of the Hannover-Bristol Gesellschaft, to show the history of the link between the two cities. The first showing was to celebrate the 65th anniversary,...

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Bristol-Hannover members have been busy both giving and attending lectures on a variety of topics: First came Colin Evans, with a talk at Stoke Lodge, on The Art of the Weimar Republic, which was lively and colourful, and greatly appreciated by the 20 or so members and friends who attended. Mark Allinson gave a talk, also at Stoke Lodge to about 20 people on ‘Christmas in the GDR’ which turned out to be very revealing, often comical, of the attempts by the GDR regime to find a non-religious thematic explanation, for the festival of Christmas! They also made a doubtless impressive film...

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On Sunday December 11th, a record number of 36 members and friends joined us for our annual Christmas lunch in Broadmead at the Christmas market. The new company treated us superbly, we were very comfortable and warm, and after some Spekulatius biscuits to start us off, enjoyed a goodly portion of Wurst (or veggie equivalent), Sauerkraut and Kartoffelsalat, washed down with 2 very welcome beakers of Glühwein – we drank a toast to John Veale, our old friend who had recently died. We look forward to a great celebration at the end of the 70th anniversary celebrations this year!

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Friday 20th January sees the launch of our celebrations of 70 years of friendship between Bristol and Hannover (also Bordeaux) at M-Shed (below).  The Lord Mayor, Cllr. Jeff Lovell, will open the proceedings, and the programme includes performances in German and French from Bristol schoolchildren, stories of long-term friendships with both cities and contributions by the French and German Honorary Consuls, as well as the Chairs of Bristol-Hannover Council and the Association Bordeaux-Bristol.  Later in the year there will be other events: a concert of French and German music at Colston Hall,...

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Bristol Hannover Council has lost its stalwart member. Dr John Veale sadly passed away on 6th December (St Nicholas Day) in Southmead hospital after a short illness. John who had received the German Medal of Honour from the German Government a few years ago, had gone to Hannover as a young school student in 1949 and had witnessed first-hand the devastation wreaked on that city. John was later to write his memoirs about his professional and personal life devoted to Anglo-German relationships, the twinning with Hannover and his lifelong friends in Hannover. Despite being a Bristol Rovers fan John...

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** 'Anniversary II: The Return' was accomplished in mid-September when members of the Bristol-Hannover youth exchanges of the mid-1960s emulated last year's initial friendship revival. Last year German members of the 1965 and 1966 exchanges spent a long weekend in Bristol happily reviving memories and friendships with their long-ago hosts. The event was such a success that, even before the Hannoverians flew home, a date for a Bristolian return had been agreed. Hence a party of 19 flew to Hannover on Friday, September 9, to enjoy the remarkable heat of the late German summer and the warmth...

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Bristol City Councillor Kye Dudd visited Hannover on 16th September on official business to discuss strengthening the relationship between the two city councils in light of the BREXIT vote and the upcoming 70th anniversary in 2017. Councillor Dudd met with Councillor Robert Nicholls who is also the chairman of the Hannover Bristol Association and with the Oberbürgermeister Stefan Schostok (see photos) as well as attending a session of Hannover City Council’s Culture Committee. Councillor Dudd also privately met with colleagues from the SPD and the German TUC in Hannover as part of his programme. ...

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