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North Hykeham Town Twinning Association

Visit to Denzlingen, 1st to 6th July, 2010

(“Europafest”)

A party consisting of 27 members of the Association arrived in Denzlingen on the evening of Thursday 1st July. On Friday, 2nd, following a visit for our party to the town of Donaueschingen, site of the “official” source of the River Danube as well as the famous international horse trials, members returned to Denzlingen Town Hall for the official welcome by the Burgermeister, Markus Hollemann,

for all delegations attending the “Europafest” celebrations, i.e., ourselves, the delegation from St. Cyr Sur Mer in France and the delegation from Citta Della Pieve in Italy. Also welcomed was a delegation from the Polish community of Konstancin-Jeziorna which is to become twinned with Denzlingen in 2011. Later in the evening, there was a reception for heads of delegations at the Rocca centre, (a former tobacco warehouse which now hosts the Denzlingen library and IT access centre, a coffee shop and public meeting rooms).

 

 

On Saturday morning, there was a seminar on “green” topics, also held at the Rocca centre, which was open to all participants in the weekend. Prior to the commencement of the talks, those present walked the short distance to the Town Hall to see one of the new electric vehicle charging points that had been erected around the town and which had come into use only the previous day. The Burgermeister is a member of the Ecological Democrat Party and, together with the Green Party members of the Town Council is trying to improve Denzlingen's environmentally-friendly credentials. In conjunction with Energie BW, the local electricity supplier, the Town Council has obtained a fleet of electric mopeds, (more powerful than the electrically-assisted bicycles we sometimes see in North Hykeham). Residents register with the scheme at the Town Hall and can then use the mopeds and the charging points, (including for use with any electric vehicles they already own). The scheme is regulated through the use of electronic fobs which identify the user to a central computer system. Charges resulting from the use of the scheme are shown directly on residents domestic Energie BW electricity bills. Below is a photograph showing the Burgermeister demonstrating one of the mopeds to Ilse Lambrou-Bonn, the secretary of the North Hykeham committee of Denzlingen.

 

After the demonstration, delegates and others returned to the Rocca centre for the addresses by speakers from Germany France Italy and myself from the UK.

Afterwards, delegates walked through the town where a number of properties with solar panels and smaller wind generators were pointed out. The greater sunlight levels in Denzlingen mean that as well as supplementing water heating as is more usually the case in the UK, local residents can actually generate significant levels of electricity through photo-voltaic cells.  A lunch for officials then followed at a local hotel where there were opportunities to discuss the topics of the morning as well as other issues. I was fortunate to spend the whole of this time in the company of the official representative of the Konstancin-Jeziorna council, Mrs Jadwiga Sowinska. For historical as well as more recent economical reasons, the Poles feel particularly close to the U.K. and I think that there is a clear opportunity to further links between our two communities, perhaps more so than we have done in the past with St. Cyr and Citta. Not the least reason for this is that Konstancin-Jeziorna is only a fairly short distance from Warsaw airport and travel there is much easier than to go to the other two twin town of Denzlingen. The Mayor of the town announces on the town's website that he is a fluent English-speaker. Konstancin is already twinned with 6 towns, 4 in the East, one in The Netherlands and one in France, (NOT St. Cyr). The town is a Spa town and is colloquially known by it's residents as “Warsaw's Luxury Bedroom”. Apparently, it is the first stop for Warsaw's upwardly-mobile classes wishing to get out of the city centre.

Following lunch, the official delegates merged with the remainder of the visiting nationalities for a visit to the small folk-museum in Denzlingen, (see picture below), which was followed by a tasting at the same location of organic wines produced by Denzlingen's Deputy Burgermeister, Otto Frey and his son Martin.

 

At 6pm, the Burgermeister officially opened the Europafest gala which was held in the grounds of the “Kultur & Burgerhalle”.

Denzlingen's many community groups operated various food and drink stalls and there was entertainment and open-air dancing right through until midnight, with two outdoor stages and the large indoor auditorium all being used. Shortly after the official opening, a joint committee meeting was held between the committee members from North Hykeham, and their German counterparts. The topics discussed included:-

1 - A visit by the 50-strong Denzlingen Music Society to North Hykeham, hopefully next year. This is the town's orchestra and is a mixed-age group. Many of its younger members were members of the Erasmus School Band who visited North Hykeham a couple of years back. The committee in North Hykeham will attempt to find suitable accommodation and concert venues.

2 – A twinning arrangement for All Saints County Primary School, with
a similar school in Denzlingen.

3 – A proposed Youth Camp in Denzlingen during the Summer of 2011. The committee in North Hykeham will approach relevant youth groups, including the scouts.

4 – Renewing attempts to make contact with Lincoln-area swimming clubs who regularly use NK Sports Centre, (Lincoln Vulcans and Pentaqua). Despite previous efforts at contacting these clubs direct, there had been no reply at all from either so far.

At 10pm, candle trails were lit in the areas not being used by stalls and also throughout the central town park which was just across the road, (see below). This spectacular sight has become a tradition in Denzlingen over the years.

On the morning of Sunday, 4th July, an ecumenical service with input in German, English, French and Italian was held in the Kultur & Burgerhalle, followed by the official ceremony marking 35 years of Twinning with St. Cyr., and 15 years with Citta, (our 20th anniversary was held in Denzlingen in 2008 and in North Hykeham in 2009 - see the front of the home page on this website). The heads of the various delegations gave short addresses and official gifts were exchanged. The Burgermeister also welcomed the visitors from Konstancin-Jeziorna and looked forward to the planned twinning of their communities in 2011. The North Hykeham address was made jointly by myself and Mrs Chris. Smith. Again, the enthusiasm of the Polish delegation was apparent and I spoke of the long-standing connections with the Polish people in our area, coupled with the more recent arrivals of people working in agriculture and food production, many of whom have decided to put down roots in Lincolnshire. On leaving the rostrum, I was stopped by an elderly Polish gentleman called Tomasz. Literally with tears in his eyes, he thanked me for the warm expressions of greeting I had made towards his group.  He said , “ our old friends the English have really supported us this weekend, just as they have in the past”.  

Following a lunch for the committee members of the the countries attending, at which more gifts were exchanged, the entertainment programme continued throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening, including a joint concert from the orchestra of the Denzlingen Music Society and the Progres Musical orchestra of St. Cyr.

The afternoon continued with more entertainment, food and drink The North Hykeham delegation contributed to the entertainment component of the evening's programme by “performing”, (??), a folk dance. Citizens from the other participating nations were invited to join in for a reprise of this. The evening concluded at 10pm with a firework display.

On Monday, 5th July, the English contingent were taken on a tour of the region including a cable-car ride up the Belchen mountain which gave wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. The visibility was quite good as can be seen from the below photograph.

On REALLY clear days, it is possible to see the peaks of the Swiss alps but unfortunately, they were lost in the heat haze. The normal Mid-Summer temperature for the area is considerably warmer than in North Hykeham but rarely more than 31-33 degrees. The heatwave covering most of Europe at the time did not leave the Black Forest untouched and for most of our stay the temperatures were between 35 and 40 degrees, so warm that the locals were complaining!

(Looking North-West across the Rhine valley towards the Vosges region of France – the old and new courses of the river can clearly be seen in the centre of the picture)

After lunch, the party visited the town of Stauffen, famous as the site of Faust's experiments in creating gold from base metal. Having reputedly sold his soul to the Devil for the secret of transmutation, he promptly blew himself up in his laboratory! A recent experiment in Geothermal Heating by the town council seems to have backfired in that large cracks have appeared in most of the historic buildings in the town centre. Apparently, this ground has now stabilised there, but some effects are now being noticed further out. Local rumour has it that Faust is wreaking his revenge on the town for drilling down into his new home in Hell!!

Also whilst in Stauffen, a visit was made to the Schladerer schnapps distillery where production of the 2010 cherry harvest to make Kirsch had just begun.

Our party left Denzlingen the following morning and returned to North Hykeham on Thursday, 8th after a two-night stay in Laon, Northern France

John Lingard
Chairman – North Hykeham Town Twinning Association

12th July, 2010

 

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