Our twinning with Cwmbrân in Wales
Understanding, diversity and openness to the world are not a question of the size of a town or city, but of the connections we make and our curiosity about others, about other countries and people from different backgrounds.
The partnership between Bruchsal and Cwmbrân came about within a few months: First written contact in November 1978 and it was formalised as a town twinning arrangement as early as September 1979. Individual contacts between sports, culture and music clubs in various districts and neighbouring communities quickly developed into a network of exchanges, including trips by choirs, schools, churches, swimming and football teams, fishing clubs, local council delegations and even a direct flight by glider pilots.
From the outset, these contacts suffered from ‘tight budgets’ (in 1982!) and the low priority given to German as a foreign language in British schools. But the language barriers could – and still can – be overcome time and again; back then, a letter took five days to travel from Cwmbrân to Bruchsal and vice versa. This did not diminish but almost seems to have underpinned the warmth of the encounters and meant that everyone made an effort to clear away the obstacles and find new ways of tackling local problems by looking at how the partners dealt with them in their own communities.
Partnerships and contacts thrive on encounters and exchanges. Particularly at a time when new obstacles have arisen – for example, as a result of Brexit – and when a view from the church tower is often regarded as the broadest possible perspective, the Friends of Cwmbrân wish to continue to foster and support contacts across the Channel, across linguistic and cultural boundaries, and across a distance of 930 miles.
Views of Bruchsal …
Collage created by Klara Langer
Information about Bruchsal: https://bruchsal.de
tourist information: https://bruchsal-erleben.de
