Many anniversaries at the Schongau city partnerships

Schongau has a partnership with five cities, and all of them have a small anniversary just around the corner: in 2022/2023, 60, 50 and 25 years of twinning can be celebrated.

In times of Corona, it's not that easy to plan something overall.

The connection is currently digital.

Schongau

- A city partnership without traveling and the possibility of being able to offer visitors from the partner cities accommodation - in times of Corona a lot has fallen flat.

Many program items from this year had been postponed, reports Ursula Diesch, responsible for town twinning at the city of Schongau.

Only a few things could take place.

Music, for example, created a connection in 2021: The Schongau organist Andreas Wiesmann offered a musical trip to the Schongau twin cities of Abingdon (England), Colmar (France), Lucca (Italy), Gogolin (Poland) and Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) in May .

The organ night could not take place in front of an audience, but the works from all countries of the twin cities could and can be viewed and heard as recordings.

Contact kept mostly online

Contact was maintained mainly digitally via the regular Zoom meetings with members of the Friends' Groups from all twin cities - organized by the members of the Twin Town Society in Abingdon.

There is also a monthly newsletter with information from all partner cities online at www.adtts.eu.

The current newsletter from September is already available, the previously published ones are also available.

And those who are interested in the town twinning in Schongau can make a note of the next face-to-face meeting of the Circle of Friends.

This is planned for October 19th (7 p.m., Gasthaus Lindauer).

It's an open group, so anyone interested can come and find out more at any time.

After all, the Schongau Circle of Friends of Town Partnerships has 78 members.

The Circle of Friends has been in this fixed form for 20 years now.

Two trips now in the fall

At least two trips are now planned for this autumn: A day in Colmar is firmly planned for the educational trip of the Evangelical Community of Schongau with 35 participants: On September 22nd, a tour of the city, a visit to the Unterlinden Museum and a reception in the town hall are scheduled .

The mountaineering choir will then travel to the French city with 60 participants and will also make music together with a music group from Colmar.

Culinary delights cannot be missed in France, at the invitation of the Friends of Colmar Les Amis du Jumelage, everyone will dine together.

Schongau's mayor, Falk Sluyterman, is also on board on this trip, as Ursula Diesch reveals: "He's meeting the new Lord Mayor of Colmar, Éric Straumann, for the first time."

Careful with the planning for the coming year

We are still very cautious with the planning for the coming year, "We do think about it, but planning something firmly is very difficult due to the current Corona situation," said Diesch. So far there has only been one very fixed event - and it was planned for 2020. In the hope that the Passion Play will take place in Oberammergau, there is an appointment in July when guests from Abingdon come to Schongau and, with the exception of the night in Oberammergau, are accommodated in host families in Schongau.

And then, of course, you also want to start planning for the upcoming anniversaries: Diesch estimates that the 60-year-old relationship will certainly be a topic at the next conference of the twin cities, which is to take place in Sint-Niklaas in 2022.

As a rule, the mayors of all twin cities, the partnership officers and representatives of the circle of friends take part in this conference.

There is not yet an exact date for the conference, but various options are being considered.

60, 50 and 25 years of sibling

Review: On December 6, 1961, the Schongau city council decided to join the sister cities of Sint-Niklaas, Colmar and Lucca.

Various celebrations took place in 1962 and 1963, which is why the Schongau partnership officer assumes that the anniversary celebrations will take place in 2022 and 2023.

A 50th anniversary can be celebrated for the town twinning with the English.

The friendship treaties with Abingdon - previously sibling with Sint-Niklaas - were signed in 1970, the celebrations also did not follow until 1972. Schongau has had the most recent relationship with Gogolin, namely since 1996. For the 25-year-old, encounters are also planned in 2022, which must be but will only be discussed in detail.

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The last mayors' conference of the twin cities took place in Schongau in 2019, the next one should be in Sint-Niklaas next year.

© City of Schongau