Sister Cities News

Julia Küchler in Nashville

Dear members and friends of the German-American Dialogue Center,

I would like to give you a look at the exciting results of my internship at Sister Cities in our partner city Nashville.

Sister Cities is a non-profit organization that keeps Nashville’s city partnerships alive and active. In addition Magdeburg, Nashville has four partner cities in Northern Ireland, Canada, France, and China.

Everything started for me at the end of May. I received a hearty welcome from my host family and from Doug Berry. The weekend before my first day, I met with Doug and his friend Tom, who owns an event management company. Together they are working towards organizing a German Weihnachtsmarkt in Nashville. We discussed what tasks I would have to deal with during my internship. Some of the big projects included the above-mentioned Weihnachtsmarkt and another was a big festival for the American Independence Day in Franklin. Franklin is 30 minutes south of Nashville.

I worked partly in Doug’s office in downtown Nashville, and partly in Tom’s office in Franklin. In the first weeks there were many meetings with the various committees. It was very interesting for me, as this way I could work myself right into the project and meet new people at the same time. I was always greeted friendly and heartedly and everyone secured me that I could come to them if I had any problems. Astonishingly, almost everyone there – even if sometimes it was only a few phrases – could speak German. The solidarity of the German-originating population in Nashville is still very strong. My afternoons were never boring, as Bob Bogen (who is already known in Magdeburg) showed me around Germantown. I was invited to the German Stammtisch or visited with my host family the famous Schermerhorn Symphony.

A highlight of my internship was the international Puppet Theater Festival, where a delegation from Magdeburg too k part. For this occasion, professionals came from many countries. The Magdeburgers were often in the spotlight, as the idea for an international festival arose from their 2004 excursion to Nashville. This is why, for example, the name of the Puppet Festivals mascot is named “Danke”. The figure was a thank you to Magdeburg’s delegation from four years ago.

Furthermore, a group of high school and university students flew to Magdeburg. An Argentinean Wine Dinner was served, as the city Mendoza is a planning a Partnership with Nashville. As you can see, it was an exciting and happy time here in Nashville, that I will not forget. The experience that I have gained here will be a great help in my further education.

A giant thank you goes out to Doug Berry and Tom Keirmaier – my very nice intern counselors – as well as to Becky and Michael Sharpe -who let me be a member of their family. Of course, I also want to thank Bob Bogen, with whom I could deepen the already existing friendship and who was always on my side as advisor and city guide. Many greetings from Nashville!

Julia Küchler (Nashville, 19th of July, 2008)

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