Throughout the month of October, we’ve been celebrating the 50th anniversary of twinning between Leeds and our German partner city of Dortmund. And to cap off our celebrations, last week, we hosted a visiting delegation from Dortmund which included the Mayor, Manfred Sauer.
During the visit the delegation met with some of the organisations that have been cooperating with partners in Dortmund to celebrate the Golden Anniversary. This included East Street Arts who have been working with the Dortmunder Gruppe to produce two commemorative beer mat designs, celebrating our two cities’ passion for art and brewing (more info coming soon!).
The delegation also paid a visit to the fantastic new Quarry Hill campus to meet photography students from Leeds City College who had worked with their counterparts in Dortmund to produce 50 photos that explore the relationships between Dortmund and Leeds. The exhibition is still on show in the Quarry Hill reception area so make sure you don’t miss it!
And if that wasn’t enough, the delegation travelled to Chapel FM in East Leeds to find out more about the LD50 music and literature festival involving artists, writers and musicians from Leeds and Dortmund.
One important area of cooperation with Dortmund is linked to sharing best practice around urban development and this continued with a visit to the Climate Innovation District. Leeds based property developers, CITU, shared details about their award winning approach to sustainable property development which will see areas of the South Bank transformed over the next few years.
The University of Leeds also took part in the anniversary celebrations by hosting an event for the visiting delegation, and members of the German community living in the Leeds area, which centred on a research project led by Dr. Claudia Sternberg called Family Narratives of Being German in Yorkshire.
The visit to Leeds finished with a special event at the Civic Hall, hosted by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Eileen Taylor, and the German Honorary Consul for Leeds and Manchester, Mark Green. This included a performance from the visiting Dortmund Choir, the Florian Singers, and the Leeds based Upper Harmony choir.
To hear what the Mayor of Dortmund thought about his time in Leeds and the partnership why not listen to his interview on BBC radio Leeds here (skip to 1h25 mins)
You can also check out all the photos from the visit below!
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