From Sunday, 11th to Tuesday, 13th August, the city delegation visited Christchurch. The city is located in the southern English county of Dorset and has been Aalen’s twin town since 1981. Mayor Frederick Brütting and the other delegates from Aalen met with representatives from Christchurch to strengthen existing ties and establish new ones.
A new chapter
The program included several meetings with Paul Hilliard, the Mayor of Christchurch, representatives of the City Council, the Business Association, the Christchurch Partnership Association and the Christchurch Scouts.
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Brütting stressed that the visit was intended to reinforce the town twinning with Christchurch: “After challenging years due to the Corona pandemic and Brexit, we want to breathe new life into the town twinning and open a new chapter,” said the mayor.
Aalen residents are now honorary members
As a sign of the long-standing friendship between the Christchurch and District Band and Aalen, all delegation members were awarded honorary membership in the Christchurch and District Band during a shared meal on Monday evening.
Almost 100 British Scouts are expected in Aalen in 2025
Both cities agree that they want to further intensify their contacts in the future. Next year, the city of Aalen will welcome a group of almost 100 British scouts.
Schubart-Gymnasium gets involved
A reunion with the English department of the Schubart-Gymnasium is planned for next October in England in order to prepare the scouts for their visit to Aalen.
The delegation from Aalen
In addition to Mayor Brütting and former Mayor Martin Gerlach, who is an honorary citizen of Christchurch, Hermann Schludi (Chairman of the Aalen town twinning association), Boris Erdmann (advisor of the Aalen town twinning association and member of the Round Table Aalen, which was the initiator of the town twinning), Bettina Schönherr (teacher for bilingual instruction at the Schubart-Gymnasium) and the city’s twinning representative Judith Wittmann also took part in the delegation trip.