Report to the Heinrich Heine University Project
Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf
Project on Twinning between Krefeld and Leicester
Project Leader: Peter Wiedenau
The Beginning:
After the Second World War, a strong push was made by various factions in Europe to encourage better relations between its citizens. I quote from the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR):
Twinning is the expression of a European unity and identity built from the grass roots. It is perhaps the most visible form of European co-operation, with thousands of towns and villages proudly declaring, as you enter their territory, which partner communities they are twinned with.
Twinning is also a wonderfully flexible instrument. It can take place between small villages, towns, counties, big cities…. It can focus on a whole range of issues, and can involve a wide range of actors from two or more twinned communities.
The First Steps:
The City of Leicester first twinned with Strasbourg (France) in 1960 and still maintains an active programme of twinning after 64 years.
With regards to Krefeld, I understand that this particular German City was chosen because it was of a similar size to Leicester and mainly because of the textile and clothing connection: Krefeld with satin and Leicester with woollen knitwear and socks.
The link was very active in the early days with a number of schools twinning with other schools. No full records have been kept regarding such twinning visits but I know from personal experience that Judgemeadow Community College paid many visits throughout the 80s and 90s. The visits were organised to allow the School orchestra and choir to perform live in various locations around Krefeld and, in those days, the pupils stayed in the homes of fellow Krefeld students. My two daughters participated in several visits in the 80s.
I do not know when the practice of allowing Krefeld and Leicester students to be hosted actually stopped but it has. Primarily, this situation has developed due to parents being cautious of such a practice and their consent is no longer given. This new trend has had a big influence on such exchanges and when young children under the age of 18 are involved in school or college exchanges, the children are now housed in the same building under supervision of their own teachers or guardians. This has made the cost of twinning spiral because of the cost of paying for student accommodation. It is my belief that consent for young people to be hosted by families has gradually been withdrawn because of the population of the UK increasing rapidly over the last 60 years or so through immigration.
Examples of Longevity in Twinning:
Adult organisations from Leicester and Krefeld regularly maintain exchanges and the two prime examples of this are the Fire Service and the Police Service.
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service:
The following is an extract from a booklet prepared by Jerry Askham, a retired Fire Officer, who is a member of CLETA Executive Committee to celebrate 50 years of twinning in 2023:
In 1969, the city of Leicester became twinned with the Lower Rhine city of Krefeld. The purpose of this partnership was to promote friendship and understanding among the population. The two cities also became twin cities because of similar size and economic interests.
In 1973, Leicester was invited to Krefeld for the 600th anniversary of the granting of city rights. Part of the delegation was the Leicester Fire Brigade, which travelled to Krefeld by bus with other participants. This is how the first connection of the firefighters began in 1973. What follows is the story of a friendship that has endured to this day.
International Police Association (IPA) – Leicestershire Branch:
I, personally, have produced a running account of the history of twinning between the International Police Association (IPA) over the past 50 years. Here is an extract from the beginning of my research:
1965 IPA Leicester was originally formed
1969 The City of Krefeld was officially twinned with the City of Leicester
1972 In September, it was the first visit to Leicester by 3 IPA Krefeld members – Horst Halupka, Helmat Adrian and Peter Wagner. The visitors were hosted by Roger Preston, Alwin Watson and Gort Measey. Roger was called out to help police a prison riot within a few hours of their arrival and Roger’s wife, Eileen, had to cope with Horst Halupka as well as a young child. You can imagine the situation – Eileen spoke no German and Horst spoke no English! Horst was sent to bed and woken up in the morning by Roger’s 4 year old boy, John, who presented Horst with a cup of tea!
Anyway, all must have gone well because this was the start of a relationship that has lasted 51 years.
1973 A visit to Krefeld was organised by City of Leicester European Twinning Association (CLETA) to celebrate Krefeld’s 600th Anniversary – 4 police officers from Leicestershire attended together with dignitaries from Leicester. These officers included Police Constable Roger Preston who was now being hosted by Horst.
1975 Roger Preston again visited Krefeld, this time with just one other police officer. At this stage there was no official IPA involvement in the contacts – this was to come later.
In the photograph, Roger is on the left with Horst in the centre.
These two extracts from the very beginning of contact between Leicester and Krefeld shows the way in which friendship between similarly minded people can blossom despite, different ways of life and culture.
Other Leicester Organisations:
There have been many other instances of twinning taking place between Leicester and Krefeld by many different organisations and personnel over the years. These groups included choirs, orchestras, volleyball ladies, engineers and many others, some of whom still do partake in twinning activities. In Leicester, during many of the 50 plus years of twinning, the Lord Mayor of Leicester has headed the CLETA organisation and, in all of our twinned cities, the situation is similar in that the international twinning links are invariably headed by the individual Mayor’s office personnel.
Lord Mayor’s Role:
During the initial twinning activities, the Lord Mayor of Leicester played a prominent part in promoting the virtues of twinning, together with CLETA. They regularly travelled across to the EU twinned cities and received mayoral delegations back in Leicester. This remained the norm until 2011 when the first City Mayor of Leicester was elected. Sir Peter Soulsby was elected by the citizens of Leicester to be the very first City Mayor and has since been re-elected three more times and remains in post. The position of a City Mayor is vital as they act as the head of the local government, playing a key role in the decision-making process and providing leadership to the community. The mayor represents the interests and concerns of citizens and acts as a bridge between the local administration and the people they serve.
The Lord Mayor is a councillor who is elected on a yearly basis by their fellow councillors. The role of the Lord Mayor is primarily a ceremonial one, maintaining and promoting the interests of the city and its citizens, and attending a variety of engagements during the year.
Gradually, over the last 12 years or so, the monies granted to the Lord Mayor’s Office have been considerably reduced and the lack of finances has impacted severely on the amount of events the Lord Mayor can participate in – whether this be at home or abroad. On many occasions since 2011, the Lord Mayor has declined invitations to represent the City of Leicester in twinning events held overseas. On those occasions, a delegation of CLETA Executive Committee members have made the trip and represented the City of Leicester.
City of Leicester European Twinning Association (CLETA):
During the majority of our twinning years, CLETA has been very much to the fore in facilitating the citizens of Leicester in joining in with twinning activities and, in the majority of cases, were able to provide some funding to help individual members and groups to take an active part in twinning events. This help was aided by funding from the Leicester City Council.
However, in addition to the above financial impact on the Lord Mayor’s Office, our Twinning association has been stripped of any funding from the Leicester City Council since 2019. CLETA has survived to facilitate and support twinning events by falling back on its own pool of financial savings which is steadily declining. The money will run out in the next couple of years or so and the organisation will need to radically change its methods of supporting the citizens of Leicester to continue their exchanges with our twinned cities.
Invariably, our executive committee (all volunteers) will need to look to other ways in which to continue in its supporting role, invariably advertising CLETA with a purpose to facilitate contact between the citizens of Leicester, Strasbourg, Krefeld and Haskovo by:
- Meeting like-minded people;
- Discovering new places to become involved in culture, the arts, music, drama, sport and other happenings in the community;
- Getting help in finding contacts;
- Getting help in obtaining financial support.
Back to Present Day Twinning Activities:
So, let’s get back to twinning with Krefeld. One of our great successes during recent years is the opportunity to send a squad of Volunteer Police Cadets (VPCs) over to Krefeld to take part in the Soapbox Derby (Seifenkistenrennen) held now, every two years.
There are approximately 300 VPCs in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (the area covered by the Leicestershire Police Force). Out of this large number of cadets, a group of 8/9 VPCs who have shown excellent commitment to their role over the previous year, are selected to form the squad which attends Krefeld and they are accompanied by two VPC Leaders.
The inaugural event of the cadets joining in with the Soapbox Derby in Krefeld received excellent publicity in the IPA ‘Police World’ magazine.
CLETA has supported this activity by facilitating the visit to Krefeld together with Leicestershire Police and the Leicestershire International Police Association (IPA). CLETA does offer, at the present time, some financial funding and the remainder of the cost has been met by substantial funding through the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC). Krefeld is very generous in assisting the visit by providing accommodation, transport and meals during their stay and providing a basic model soapbox that the VPCs finish off with paint and decals.
Student Work Placements:
A large amount of effort has been put in by CLETA up until Brexit in respect of facilitating the further education of EU students from both Krefeld and Strasbourg by arranging student internships (work placements) of up to 8 weeks during each Summer. The main source of these work placements has been within departments of the Leicester City Council with a few commercial industries also providing positions. The system has proved very popular and the Berufskolleg Kaufmannsschule (BKKMS) in Krefeld who regularly sent about 3 to 5 students on average to Leicester each year to undertake these assignments.
This practice was very successful and CLETA kept a watchful eye on all of the students during their time in Leicester. Part of CLETA’s role included making arrangements for all students to be met and assisted with transport on their arrival in the UK, a welcome meal together with CLETA members; a visit to meet the Lord Mayor for afternoon tea and, more recently, to have visitor’s passes to visit the King Richard III Experience and the Space Museum. The accommodation of the students was also carefully monitored to ensure the safest possible choices.
Students and CLETA members during a visit to see the Lord Mayor
for ‘Afternoon Tea’
The handling of student visits was completely halted following Brexit and the Covid Epedemic. New rules brought in by the UK Government created a minefield of rules and regulations. The Home Office document produced entitled – Temporary Work caseworker guidance – was 48 pages long and put so many restrictions and financial burdens on the students and the prospective employers that it became impracticable and not cost effective to perform their work placements in the UK.
It has been sad to see this aspect of twinning disappear from our City and CLETA made a direct approach through local Ministers of Parliament to the UK Government to see if the rules could be amended in relation to unpaid work placements for students. Sadly, the UK Government would not alter its rules in any way.
Present Day:
The CLETA group has continued to enrol new organisations into its fold and I am pleased to report that, as far as Krefeld is concerned, the following twinning exchanges are in the pipeline:
- The Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service are anticipating planning an exchange during 2024;
- A family is arriving in Leicester over the Easter weekend 2024 and arrangements have been made for them to attend a Leicester City Football Match, a welcome meal and a visit to the Richard III Experience;
- The Mighty Creatives have obtained funding to visit Krefeld this April to participate in youth activities and will receive a group of young people back from Krefeld to Leicester later on in the year to participate in cultural activities;
- The Voluntary Police Cadets are due to visit Krefeld again in August 2024 to take part in the Soapbox Derby;
- There is the possibility that the Mayor of Krefeld, Frank Mayer, will travel to Leicester with a delegation sometime during 2024 to celebrate the 55th Anniversary of twinning between the two cities; (Please see photos of his previous visit in 2019)
- The Leicester Symphony Orchestra is planning to visit Krefeld in 2025 to stage several concerts
Leicester City Town Hall (Summer)
Leicester City Town Hall (Winter)
Visit to Leicester by Mayor of Krefeld and his delegation in 2019:
Mayor of Krefeld, Herr Frank Meyer, came to Leicester in 2019 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Twinning between Krefeld and Leicester. He signed a continuation Friendship Certificate with the then Lord Mayor of Leicester, Councillor Ross Grant. During his visit, he had the opportunity to meet up with member organisations including Judgemeadow Community College, the Voluntary Police Cadets and the Leicestershire Firefighters.
He and his delegation also had the opportunity to be welcomed by Leicester City Football Club and the King Richard III Exhibition. Here are some photos of the visit (a full report on the visit is posted on the CLETA website – cleta.org.uk):
Exchange of gifts between Lord Mayor, Councillor Ross Grant and Mayor of Krefeld, Herr Frank Meyer
Visit to Judgemeadow Community College
Tour of Leicester City Football Club – Krefeld Mayoral Delegation together with CLETA Chair Fred Rankin and Deputy Chair John Townsend
Talking with Voluntary Police Cadets
Lancaster Road Fire Station, Leicester awaits the arrival
of the Krefeld delegation
Herr Frank Meyer meets up with Feuewehrman Fritz
This report has been collated and presented by CLETA Chair, Fred Rankin(Please visit website cleta.org.uk to see more details of exchanges between Leicester and Krefeld
