News

** Around 90 people gathered at Bristol University on Thursday, October 2, to celebrate 35 years of German Unification. The event was jointly organised by the Bristol Hannover Council, Bristol Anglo German Society and the German Department of the University of Bristol. An inspiring message of support from the new German ambassador Susanne Baumann was read out by Mark Allison, the chair of BAGS who orchestrated the whole event. A series of reflections on recent history followed. Contributions included a piece on changing UK perceptions of the German economic model over the years by BHC chairman...

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---- We have waved goodbye to our friends from Hannover after another successful visit. A big thanks to all colleagues for making it happen, particularly Lynda Evans who organised it. Feedback from the Hannoverians was really positive and we are greatly looking forward to the return visit to Hannover in May 2026. Now we turn to the events coming up for BHC members in the coming months - Sunday, September  7 - Film: ‘ Riefenstahl’, Documentary about the controversial German filmmaker, Curzon Cinema Clevedon, 7.30pm Wednesday,  September  10 - BAGS talk ‘Summer on the Habsburg Trail!’  Speaker...

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** This week we again welcome our friends from Hannover to Bristol. We have a full programme of excursions organised by Lynne Evans and including trips to Wells, visits to the Balloon Fiesta and sightseeing in Bristol as well.  It will be great to see you out in force to welcome the Hannoveraner!    ?IAN TURNER, Chair # # # # # # # # 

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** On July 1 we completed a trilogy of films by the noted German director Christian Petzold with a showing at Stoke Lodge of 'Yella', a film about the dark side of private equity, partly shot in Hannover. The other films we showed-‘Phoenix’ and ‘Transit’-dealt with aspects of recent German history as depicted through personal experiences of characters with ambiguous motives. As with Petzold's more famous film, ‘Barbara’, shown by us last year, they reflect the director's unique and socially critical view of the recent past. The films were curated by BHC member Colin Evans...

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** Having led a small group of Wikipedia enthusiasts on a visit from Hannover to Bristol in 2023, Dr Carola Schelle-Wolff, former head of both Hannover city library and the city archive, was asked by the Lower Saxony Historical Society to organise a larger trip this year. She organised this with Dr Sabine Graf, President of the Lower Saxony Regional Archive, and so a group of around 20 historians spent a week exploring Bristol and its environs. They came by coach, which made their very full programme easier – this included visits to Bath, Wells, Glastonbury, as well as Filton Aerospace,...

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** In early July we had an unusual visit initiated by our good friend Detlev Oelfke, who conducted Hannover’s Big Band at Bristol Zoo on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the twinning partnership, and for many years played a key role singing in Hannover’s Canta Nova, which made several visits to Bristol, mainly partnered with the Westbury Singers, conducted by the late Paul Seath. Detlev spent some time studying law at the University of Virginia (UVA), and on this occasion was tasked with arranging the latest reunion of its Alumni Association (European Chapter), but since the group...

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** In the same week as the Sommerfest at the German Embassy, Ann Kennard attended the latest meeting of the ELPTG, which was held at Europe House, Westminster, home to the European Parliament Liaison Office to the UK. The meeting was addressed by the German Ambassador Miguel Berger, Sandro Gozi MEP, Co-Chair EU-UK Parliamentary Party Assembly, Wera Hobhouse MP, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Europe, and representatives of local government, twinning partnerships etc. Carl Wright, Chair of ELPTG, in conversation with Wera Hobhouse The meeting discussed successful local...

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** Former Chair Ann Kennard was again invited to the annual Sommerfest der deutschen Sprache, a celebration by the German Embassy of the achievements of certain individuals who have made a special effort to widen interest in the German language. Apart from celebrating the teaching and learning of German in the UK, there was also a new German-British Friendship Award: Network Champion for German as part of the Ambassador’s Making the Case for German initiative. Ambassador Berger demonstrating the great variety covered by the Newcastle German language festival This was to widen the remit...

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**  The last of our talks on previous research topics was recently given by our Chair, Ian Turner, on his Ph.D research under Professor Alan Milward when at Manchester University.  The story of Volkswagen, a project prompted by Hitler in the 1930s as a ‘car for the masses’ in answer to Ford and GM in the USA, is a fascinating one.  It was developed by Ferdinand  Porsche, working with the Nazi ‘Kraft durch Freude’ movement, and the VW works was opened in 1939. Forced labour was used at the factory during the war to build various types of vehicle for the war effort and the works...

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**  On the weekend of the Bath-Bristol Premiership playoff semi-final, we had another great visit from our friends at Hannover’s Odin rugby teams.  They watched the match on the coach coming over (Bath won), then went to Winchester on Saturday for the ladies’ teams to play in a sevens tournament, where they were delighted to come fourth out of 10 teams. Combined men’s teams of Odin and North Bristol RFC On Sunday they played a match against their weekend hosts, North Bristol RFC, the latter winning, but a fine set of presentations followed the match. The Lord Mayor...

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