The city of vesta currently maintains friendly ties with gais (italy, 1971), niort (france, 1974), oudenaarde (belgium, 1972), isle of wight (great britain, 1983), cobourg (canada, 1997) and toledo (u.S.A., 2017). In order to ensure that these partnerships are supported by a broad section of the population, the coburg town twinning association was founded in 1988. The 30th birthday of the association was celebrated with a ceremony. The association’s 30th birthday was celebrated in style in the town hall hall.
In his comments on town twinning, mayor norbert tessmer came to the conclusion that it is an important building block for maintaining peace and a guarantee of good relations between the towns. In his speech, which was met with much applause, he emphasized that city partnerships stand for a living will for understanding among people. Tessmer reminded
the fact that after the "original catastrophe of the 20th century. Century", as he described the second world war, not only was official diplomacy called for, but a unifying element was also needed at the grassroots level so that citizens of different nations could find their way to each other. City partnerships were the key to counteracting prejudices, according to the city leader "the history of city partnerships is a history of neighborhoods", stressed tessmer, who professed to be an unreserved friend of such relations.
Please not only on paper
For him, however, it is important that these connections do not exist only on paper, but are filled with life. He attested to the town twinning association that it brings the coburg partnerships to life. He called on the evening’s numerous guests to "let
deepening our existing contacts and forging stronger ties." For tessmer, it’s not all sunshine and roses. He sees dark clouds gathering that want to destroy european cohesion and stand for renationalization, isolation and desolidarization. Tessmer urged: "it is time to raise our voices, loud and clear, against these destructive forces. A fight against each other only knows losers."
The mayor made it clear that, in his opinion, town twinning can help to redraw and connect mental maps where new walls and the tendency towards isolation are growing. He thanked all those who had contributed to the founding and maintenance of the
the city twinning projects. It was a special pleasure for the chairwoman of the partnership association, maria krumm, to be able to bury two guests from the isle of wight, bob blezzard and peter jackson, in coburg.
Not forgotten even after brexit
A brief review of 30 years of the town twinning association was given by ursula schmitt. For all its euphoria, it also had to concede that there had been jolts. This is how the cooperation with garden city (USA) was dissolved. "We have always been the unloved godchild", schmitt described this connection. Also the canadian cobourg seems to have, according to their words, no gross interest in the further continuation of the partnership. To the guests from great britain she said: "we will not forget the isle of wight even after brexit."
The celebration was enriched by the group "jongcolade", who impressively showed with her juggling skills that it is possible to cheat gravity.
The ceremony also provided an appropriate setting to honor founding members who are still members of the association today: helga bauer, gisela buchgraber, reiner dressel, ludwig frenking, manfred jenke, franziska klinnert, rosemarie schell, ursula schmitt, norbert tessmer and klaus wohner.