News

Bristol City Council had proposed to cut the Twinning budget by half the coming year and in full by 2013. This would have meant that BITA (Bristol International Twinning Association) which oversees all twinning activities would have ceased to exist. However, there followed a massive campaign across the city, supporting all seven of our city partnerships, with attendance by representatives of all twinnings present at three Council meetings. At the final one on January 26th, the leader, Councillor Barbara Janke announced that it had been decided to withdraw the plan for the coming year, and to revisit...

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We were invited to attend a delightful Advent celebration on December 4th organised by the German congregation in Bristol at St Matthews Church, Kingsdown.  The congregation organised an exhibition of nativity scenes, collected from members of the church, but including scenes not only from Germany and Austria, but also Africa and India, and the cribs were made of all sorts of materials: wood, porcelain, stone, paper.  The celebration started with a short service at 15:00, after which the cribs could be visited and admired; there was then plentiful coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) and the celebration...

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There was this year both a civic visit, led by the Oberbürgermeister of Hannover, Herr Stephan Weil, and also a visit from the Hannover-Bristol Gesellschaft (see special items on these visits).Cotham School and the Goethe Schule in Hannover had their annual exchanges, and the Lord Mayor welcomed the students at a reception at the  Mansion House. The '39 Club', a group of ex-Junior Chamber of Commerce members, also had a visit from their partners from Hannover and were welcomed by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House.

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Florian Seitz, Deputy Head of Culture at the German Embassy in London, was the guest speaker at this year’s Neville Osborne memorial lecture on November 7th.  His inspiring talk was entitled: "Why learn German today?"  Over 120 students and staff from Bristol Grammar School (BGS) attended and the event was introduced by Dr Ann Kennard, Chair of Bristol Hannover Council (BHC).  Neville, who died in 2002 aged 92, had been Head of Languages at BGS, and was a founder member of Bristol-Hannover Council.  He first went to Germany in 1929 and retained his love of Germany in spite of the dreadful...

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We are currently discussing a possible visit to Hannover of a Radio Bristol presenter, to present a major event there live for the citizens of Bristol.   Watch this space!

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We have had two meetings so far to discuss the possibility of a fixture between Bristol City Football Club and Hannover 96.  This would probably start at Academy level, with possible exchanges of coaches also.  We would hope that the new Stadium might be an occasion to celebrate the twinning.  Further meetings will take place once the situation with the new BCFC stadium is clarified.  Cooperation with Bristol Rovers has also been discussed.

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From 28th July to the 2nd August, BHC hosted a group of six Hannoverian citizens, members of the Hannover-Bristol Gesellschaft, who were invited at that time in order to enjoy the Bristol Harbour Festival!  Our guests stayed in the homes of members of BHC in and around Bristol, and had a great time at the Festival, including a visit to the new Museum for Bristol, ‘M’ Shed, which they had last seen before it closed as the Industrial Museum.   During their stay, they also visited Stourhead, and were welcomed to a reception with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress at the Mansion House,...

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Between 6th and 10th June 2011, two members of the Hannover-Bristol Gesellschaft took part in the second EU-funded international workshop at Watershed, designed to train people over 50 to use their own personal stories to digitise images and sound, to learn the intricacies of video and audio-editing.  The Oberbürgermeister’s group were very interested visitors to the workshop.  In 2010 when the first such workshop took place, the Hannoverians were also represented, along with people from other cities twinned with Bristol, and the Gesellschaft plans to send other citizens to future workshops.

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