50 Years Successful Twinning : Translation from the Leverkusen Twinning Website

50 years of successful city twinning Leverkusen Bracknell…

.. was the motto of the great trip to England by the twelve-member citizens’ group of the Freundeskreis Bracknell-Leverkusen e.V. (photo on platform 9 ¾ in Waterloo Station) from September 14th to 19th, 2023, and will be the motto of the English return visit in September 2024. The citizen group was accommodated privately by the “hosts”, some of whom have had decades-long friendships and who usually belong to the partner organization Bracknell Twinning Association.

Link to original Leverkusen article in German with photo gallery

The most touching “highlights” were two “celebration evenings” with citizens, club boards and city political representatives. The “Celebration Cake” (photo) was cut by the club chairmen Renate Buchwald and Mary Temperton. In their passionate speeches, mayors Bernhard Marewski and Simon Carter placed the partnership in the context of German-British friendship. Jessica Goronczewski, representative of the city and an assessor in the circle of friends, provides active support.

Here are key words for the real firework of tourist “highlights” with a decidedly British flair: visit to the Bracknell cultural center “South Hill Park”, from London – Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament (!) -, from Windsor, Wisley Gardens, Marlow in Buckinghamshire and “Grey’s Court”, known from Downton Abbey, Hercule Poirot and Inspector Barnaby.

The town twinning was founded in 1973 – the year the UK joined the EU’s predecessor, the EEC – by Opladen under the leadership of Mayor Bruno Wiefel and later continued by Leverkusen. Appropriately, the “Table Talk” takes place as a monthly meeting of the circle of friends in the Bruno Wiefel Haus (Kölner Straße 100, every 2nd Monday of the month from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.). There is no need to fear thresholds; the language skills of the participants range from mere listening to almost perfect command of the language.

Always and despite Brexit, it is about partnership, personal encounters and experiences, not about official “shakehands”. The circle of friends, founded in 2001, wants to strengthen close relationships in the spirit of international understanding and European unification and therefore organizes trips, events, lectures, professional internships, exchanges and school contacts.