Unsere dortigen Freunde, insbesondere Doug Berry und Burkley Allen, haben uns sehr schöne Tage bereitet. Doug zeigte uns die Stadt und die “Chihuly” Ausstellung (Glaskunst siehe Bilder), Burkley Allen das Martha O’Brien Center. Letzteres hat uns sehr beeindruckt, denn – anders als in Deutschland – werden “bildungsferne” Menschen quasi vom Kindergarten- bis zum Erwachsenenalter intensiv betreut, um den Zirkel aus mangelnder Bildung und Perspektivlosigkeit zu durchbrechen. Offensichtlich ist der Erfolg solcher durchaus personalintensiver Maßnahmen größer als das bloße Bereitstellen von Geld, was in den USA in weitaus geringerem Maß geschieht.

Des weiteren hatte Doug Berry für uns Gespräche an der Vanderbilt University organisiert, u.a. im Center for European and German Studies. Wir haben einen Studentenaustausch zwischen dem dortigen Center und unserem European Studies Programm “angedacht”. Möglicherweise ergibt sich auch die Möglichkeit einer gemeinsamen Veranstaltung. In Nashville wurden im Rahmen eines Symposiums das Civil Rights Movement und die Bürgerbewegung, die zum Ende der DDR führte, verglichen. Wir haben darüber gesprochen, dieses Thema auch nach Magdeburg zu holen: “We, the people” und “Wir sind das Volk!”, eventuell fokussiert auf die Rolle der Kirchen in beiden Fällen. Erste Gespräche mit potentiellen Partnern – allein schaffen wir das nicht – haben bereits stattgefunden.

Schließlich hatten wir noch einen Termin beim Bürgermeister von Nashville, Karl Dean. Praktischerweise kam auch der Bürgermeister von Mendoza, Argentinien, dazu. Unser sofortiger Versuch, eine Kooperation der Weinbauregionen herzustellen (argentinischer Rotwein ist sehr empfehlenswert!), hatte leider (noch) nicht gewünschten Erfolg.

Im weiteren Verlauf der Reise waren wir u.a. bei Freunden in New York. Wir haben dort den 9. Jahrestag des “Nine-Eleven” miterlebt und lange mit unseren Freunden darüber gesprochen, wie wir den 11.9.2001 erlebt haben. Dieses und ein Besuch bei “Ground Zero”, wo die Ereignisse des Tagen noch ungemein präsent sind, vermittelten uns sehr stark die tiefe emotionale Betroffenheit der Amerikaner, weit mehr als es “bloß über den Kopf” möglich ist.

Sonst noch: Was wir eigentlich auch vorher wussten: Die Straßen in den USA sind meist schlechter, die Universitäten besser als bei uns. Was sagt uns das?

Beste Grüße

Ihr Wolfgang Renzsch

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There is a special highlight at the annual Magdeburg Rathausfest, Friday October 3rd, 2008: at 12:45 on the main stage at Alter Markt, Mayor Lutz Trümper will hold a live teleconference with Doug Berry of Nashville.

Other interesting program events dealing with the Magdeburg-Nashville city partnership include:

• 10-5pm What do Magdeburg’s partner cities eat? A small sampling, presented by the Ratskeller, in the inner courtyard of the Altes Rathaus.
• 12:30 Nashville Photo Show, Ratssaal “Otto von Guericke”
• 2-2:30pm “Magdeburg Hemispheres” – Square Dance, Exhibition Area, Reception in Rathaus

Come and stop by! Around 3:30pm a ceremony will occur, presenting the signs for the new partner cities of Harbin, Radom, and Saporshje at the northern entrance to Magdeburg.

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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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On the 16th of August the German-American Dialog Centre organized a reception in honor of mayor Bill Purcell in the Otto-von Guericke museum Lukasklause. As you know, the Nashville Promenade ends there. Approximately 120 friends and interested people of the city partnership Magdeburg-Nashville joined the occasion. Chairman of the German-American Dialog Centre, Dr. Uwe Küster, Lord mayor Dr. Lutz Trümper and chairman of the Otto-von-Guericke company, Prof. Kattanek have been among the guests and spoke some greetings. Mayor Bill Purcell was very grateful for this warm welcome. For the opportunity of his visit here in Magdeburg he was given a special press part of the local newspaper VOLKSSTIMME, about which he was especially happy. On sides of the Otto-von Guericke Company there was a nice presentation of the famous hemisphere-experiment.

On the following Friday, August 17th, mayor Bill Purcell met Lord mayor Dr Lutz Trümper to a talk in the Magdeburg city hall. They were accompanied by deputy mayors Beate Bröcker, Dr. Klaus Puchta and Jörn Marx. All of them visited the plenum of the city-council afterwards. Later that afternoon Bill Purcell visited the library together with Dr. Uwe Küster and our friends from Nashville. There they informed each other about the project America@yourlibrary and the Nashville-Info-Point. After ending this point they went on to a tour through the Virtual Development Training Centre (VDTC) of the Fraunhofer Institute, a virtual three dimensional novelty in the Elbe Dome. At the round flight in a double-deck airplane, type Antonow 2 and aslo called “the Red Baron”, Bill Purcell, Doug Berry and Bob Bogen experienced their ister city from another perspective. In the evening there was a “Get-together” in the “Montego Beach-Club”, located in the science-harbour of Magdeburg. Our member Ralf Todzi, master confectioner, has made a torte with a picture of Bill Purcell on it.

Saturday the 18th, began with a panoramic Elbe-cruise of the White Armada on MS “Saxony-Anhalt”. He thus had the chance to get learn about Magdeburg by land, water and air. For this day Sabine Schlunk, who works in Nashville, took part on this program along with her mother. The family Kühne has prepared a romantic lunch for our friends at the castle of Wanzleben. In the afternoon Bill Purcell, Doug Berry and Bob Bogen have joined to watch a training of the Virgin Guards. The culminating final of the program has been the Balloon magic and the Night Glow in the Elbauenpark. These unforgettable experiences will surely stay in or minds. We thank our friends from Nashville for their stay and greatly look forward to continuing the good collaboration. On this very point we would certainly also like to thank all of the kind helpers during the stay of our Nashvillian friends.

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