CHAIR’S REPORT 2015-16

Annual General Meeting, 27October 2016

It has been another busy year, both with ongoing events, in particular our visit to Hannover in the summer, but also with preparations for the exciting year ahead in 2017, when we shall celebrate our 70th anniversary, along with Bristol-Bordeaux!

The committee has continued to work well, mainly through the activity of the small nucleus of the group who regularly attend meetings and are active in helping to move our activities forward. There are more changes to the committee membership this year than usual, with some new members, and some sad departures, one of which in particular I will come back to at the end of my report.

  • Our last AGM was presided over by Alderman Peter Main, who was delighted to be back among us, and was very complimentary about our work, and referred back to our long history, which will be celebrated in 2017.
  • Green Capital Summit – Alix Hughes and I had attended this in October, and took Buergermeister Hermann and his wife Councillor Schuermann from Hannover on a short tour of the city centre. They were delighted to see the Love Tree with its messages from Hannover in the Central Library, and Frau Schuermann subsequently kindly donated books on Hannover to the Central Library.
  • Later in October a small group of us attended a very different event: namely a Roller Derby match! The Bristol teams travelled to Hannover and though they lost to the Hannoverians, the Demolition Derby Dolls (!), they were very keen to have a return match, so we are hoping for more!
  • October saw the departure in Hannover into retirement of the Head of theKulturbüro, Gabi Ciecior, who had been a stalwart friend of the twinning, and her assistant, Janika Millan, compiled a book for her of mementoes and pictures from all of Hannover’s twinnings, including ours, and we also managed to send some flowers for her retirement party via Janika
  • In November came a very proud moment for Bristol-Hannover Council, when committee member, Tim Illston, was installed as Honorary Consul forGermany. Several members of the committee were present to hear him and the Ambassador, Dr Peter Ammon, speak of the close relationship between our two countries, which is supported by the work of the twinning partnership. Tim is to be congratulated on his appointment, though it involves quite a lot of work!
  • In November also, I wrote to my counterpart in Hannover, Robert Nicholls, a letter ofsolidarity on behalf of the committee, with the situation in Hannover where they were taking in several thousand refugees, giving them accommodation, food, language and other help; I offered our help if it could be arranged, and the Gesellschaft appreciated our sentiments.
  • In December, a good group of members and friends, including those from other twinnings, had a convivial lunch at the annual Christmas Market; again the organisers treated us to delicious Glühwein, Bratwurst and Bratkartoffeln. Harry and his company will no longer be coming to Bristol, but we understand that his replacement may indeed be able to offer a German Christmas lunch!
  • January this year saw the sad death of our former Treasurer, Derek Brockwell; always helpful and with a sense of humour, he is much missed.
  • February was a month of contrasting events: we did not have our usual Rosenmontag Fasching Party in Bristol this year (Tony and I went to Cologne, to celebrate it in the home of Rosenmontag!), but during that month, a group led by Bath University visited the Hannover region, in order to walk the route, 70 years on, of a death march to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp: “Honouring Esther”,the mother of one of the organisers, Lorna Brunstein, whose mother is still alive and living in London. We supported this endeavour financially, and were privileged to attend a small illustrated presentation of the walk afterwards. This project will be completed next year.
  • Our Annual Dinner was held this year in March, again at the Town House restaurant in Whiteladies Road and was greatly enjoyed by the 20 or so people who came, including former Lord Mayor Peter Abrahams and his wife.
  • In April a convivial group of members and friends met for a very informal lunch at a new café which had recently been opened, run by two brothers: The Speck Brothers. It was a very jolly affair, food being eaten on wooden doors as tables, and very inexpensive. Unfortunately the venture did not last long and closed down soon after.
  • In May we took part in the BITA Quiz, a record number of 45 people attended; hosted by last year’s winners, Bristol-Oporto, this year the cup went to the Bristol-China partnership, who will host next year’s quiz
  • Also in May acompetition was held to design a logo for the Jubilee next year, and a prize of £100 presented to the winner, a UWE postgraduate student, Minjeong Shin, by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Alastair Watson.
  • In Junedental students from Hannover were visiting the University of Bristol, and I was asked to give a presentation about the history of the link, which was well received, as most of them knew little about it previously.
  • I also gave a talk to a group of senior citizens about BHC at the Central Library, as part of a series being organised there.
  • In July BHC again had a stand in the Twinning Zone at the Harbour Festival,we had the same good position as last year, and lots of visitors and interest.
  • Our big event of the summer was our biennial visit to Hannover at the end of July. Fifteen of us went, and enjoyed a splendid programme of visits including the Sprengel Museum, the Pied Piper city of Hameln, the Hannover Volkswagen factory, and the highlight: the ‘Kleines Fest im Grossen Garten’, where in spite of the rain, we all enjoyed the many quirky performances, costumes and fireworks. The new Chair, Robert Nicholls, had made a great effort and it was a great success, so we are very grateful to him and his committee for their hard work in setting up the programme
  • In September there was a return visit of the Bristol contingent of the 50th anniversaryreunion group to Hannover, some of whom re-met for the first time since 1965 in 2015! and another happy time was had by all – read Jonathan Radnedge’s account on our website.
  • Still in September, there were also visits to Hannover of the Bristol-Hannover Badminton Exchange, led by the BeaufortBadminton Club,andof theAriel Rowing Club, to their very long-standing partner organisations, and we will hear about both trips later.
  • Apart from all these events and visits, thanks to committee member Lynne McAleavey, we have reached out to all the other twinnings around Bristol, such as Bath-Braunschweig, Clevedon-Ettlingen, Portishead-Schweich and the group of twinnings organised in South Glos. They are all keen to be involved in the celebrations next year, and we are in regular communication with them.
  • We have given more financial support than usual to young people travelling to Hannover this year, and I am sure this will be intensified in the next year.
  • We were delighted to welcome a student here from Hannover for 6 weeks this summer, Nicole Friedlein, who stayed with various members and friends, did voluntary work and absolutely loved Bristol – she hopes to come back to do a placement in a law firm here, now that she has started university
  • There is also now a display cabinet in the Twinnings section of the Central Library, and this has already had a number of items which have been given to us by different twinnings on show. We have shown the Medal of Honour from the British-German Association, a piece of art which was given to Lord Mayor Alastair Watson by Oberbürgermeister Schostok of Hannover, and currently there is a bust of the philosopher Leibniz on show, which was given to me for us all to enjoy by Bürgermeister Thomas Hermann, when we were in Hannover in summer this year.

I would like here to thankAlix Hughes, the BITA coordinator, for the huge amount of help he has given us in working with Hannover, and also in setting up events here in Bristol. His work with Janika Millan continues to be crucial in ensuring that we can maximise our cooperation, especially now in the preparations for the Jubilee celebrations next year. I look forward to continuing to work with him, and with Barbara Kolbe, who will replace Janika during her maternity leave.

And finally, I would like to thank the committee for their support – everyone has contributed something, but no-one will mind, I think, if I single out a faithful member, who is the longest-serving committee member by a mile, but is unable to be here with us tonight. John Veale has been visiting Hannover at least once every year since 1949, and has contributed an enormous amount to the relationship between the two cities in so many ways. He is a familiar figure in Hannover and I know that the partnership between the peoples of the two cities has played a huge part in his life. He even managed to come with us to Hannover this summer, though he was in a wheelchair, and I know he was grateful to committee member David Perkins, for helping him with that. John is now in hospital, and likely to come out into a nursing home – it is not yet clear how things will work out, but I promised him that I would remember him to everyone at the AGM, and I am sure we all send him our very best wishes.

Ann Kennard

Chair

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