40 years since signing of twinning charter between Newark and Emmendingen in Germany sealed with a handshake sculpture
A sculpture of a handshake was commissioned to represent 40 years of twinning friendship.
The 40-year anniversary of the signing of the charter between Newark and its twin town of Emmendingen in Germany was celebrated over the weekend.
A number of events took place in town including a dinner at Newark Town Hall where the sculpture was presented to Oberburgermeister Stefan Schlatterer.
Distinguished guests attended the dinner where the chairman of Newark Twinning Association, Rita Crowe made a speech.
Newark College made the sculpture from a brief provided by the clerk to Newark Town Council, Matthew Gleadell that showed the hand shake of the 40-year partnership. The hands were sculpted by art students and mounted on American ash wood by joinery students.
Mrs Crowe said: “On this 40th anniversary of the signing of the Charter with Emmendingen, I am delighted to be able to welcome friends from Emmendingen and [Polish twin town] Sandomierz.
“A special welcome to Mayor Marcin [Mayor of Sandomierz] who is in Newark for the first time, and we hope he will visit us many more times.
“So much has happened since we were last able to be together to celebrate our friendships here in Newark five years ago, particularly covid and the resulting impact on us all, which makes this weekend’s celebration even more special.
“In 1983 the late Hans Peter Schlatter, Oberburgermeister, wrote in his twinning speech about the history and lessons learned and said ‘Our twinning is to forge close links between individual people, families, and societies, and thus strengthen the feeling of mutual understanding’.
“Our first chairman the late Roland Cope, past mayor, wrote in 2008 that following the search for a twin town in Germany, he and MIke Wilson [the town clerk] recommended Emmendingen.
“He said ‘The success of twinning should not be measured by the number of years the partnership has existed, but by the number of people from each town who have visited each other whether privately or in an organised group and by the lifelong friendships that have been forged’.
“It’s so fitting that we have the sons of the Fathers of Newark/Emmendingen twinning here with us tonight in Oberburgermeister Stefan and past Mayor Max Cope.”
Tribute was paid to Susanne Kreiner on the occasion of her final official visit to Newark having organised town twinning on behalf of Emmendingen.
The Newark and Sherwood Concert Band, regular visitors to Emmendingen and who performed Last Night of the Proms at the Palace Theatre in February performed at the town hall Sunday evening.
Mrs Crowe was surprised that February evening when a delegation from Emmendingen in attendance took to the stage as a surprise to present her with the Badge of Honour of the town of Emmendingen, of which she was only the third person outside of Germany to receive.
Roland Cope was the first to receive the Badge of Honour in 2001 for having promoted the idea of a British-German town twinning between Newark and Emmendingen.
Among the other events those representing Emmendingen and Sandomierz were invited to participate in over the weekend were Armed Forces Day and a visit to NEwark College’s internationally-renowned School of Violin-Making.
