Our
Establishment and Early History (1992 - 2000)
St. Charles Sister Cities Programs, Inc., was incorporated as a
non-profit 501(c)3 organization in 1994, two years after Joe Daues,
then president of the St. Charles County German Heritage Club began
actively seeking the establishment of a working group to pursue the
aims of the Sister Cities International program, which are, briefly: To
join two communities, always from different countries and sometimes
from different continents, via meaningful exchanges in the areas of
business, culture, education, industry, social awareness and any other
fields of interest the two cities may share, with the idea of
furthering mutual understanding and cooperation on a long-term basis.
In 1994, the SCSCP elected Joe Daues as its first president and
immediately began seeking a Partnership with Ludwigsburg, Germany, a
city of about 85,000 located in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, on a
plateau above the Neckar River about six miles north of the state
capital of Stuttgart.
Ludwigsburg was the target city because:
1. It is
comparable in size to St. Charles and located near a larger city,
Stuttgart, which is a Sister City to St. Louis, and also across the
Neckar River from Marbach, a Sister City with Washington, Mo.
2. It was
seeking an American city as its fourth Sister City, hoping to complete
the cycle of partnerships with communities in each of the 4 Allied
countries that were Germany's opponents during World War II.
3. An
American Army base (Pattonville) had been located just outside
Ludwigsburg from 1946 until it closed in 1993. A good relationship
existed between the soldiers and the citizens, and Ludwigsburg was
looking for a way to continue its American contacts.
4.
Correspondence with Ludwigsburg City officials in 1993 brought an
invitation from then-Lord Mayor (Oberbuergermeister) Hans Jochen Henke
to then-St. Charles Mayor Grace Nichols and Joe Daues to visit the
German community.
5. The St.
Charles City Council adopted a resolution July 21,1994, encouraging the
establishment of formal relations with cities outside the United
States, although it did not provide any funds to help reach that goal.
Nichols, Daues and their respective spouses, paying their own expenses,
visited Ludwigsburg for a week late in September 1994 for an intensive
look at the civic, educational, business, industrial and cultural
attractions there; and came away very favorably impressed. In return,
Mayor Henke was invited to pay a visit to St. Charles, but political
developments put the "twinning" process on hold. Henke took a top job
with the Federal Republic's Department of Transportation, and Bob
Moeller was elected as our new mayor. Moeller proved a friend of the
Sister Cities idea, which also gained more support from the City
Council. Ludwigsburg's city council voted to approve a Partnership
agreement, and Moeller and Daues led a St. Charles delegation to
Ludwigsburg in early July 1996, where the Americans joined in
Ludwigsburg's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the
war. In the Ludwigsburg Rathaus (City Hall), Moeller and Ludwigsburg
Oberbuergermeister Christof Eichert signed the German translation of
the Sister Cities agreement, July 4. A Ludwigsburg delegation came to
St. Charles for a week in October 1996, and the mayors signed the
English-language version of the agreement, during St. Charles'
Oktoberfest celebration, officially sealing the pact. While Ludwigsburg
is St. Charles' first international partner, the Baden-Wurttemberg
community, as mentioned earlier, also has Sister Cities' agreements
with Montpelier in France, CAER Philly in Wales and Jevpatrcrija in
Ukraine.
The bonding between the American and German towns has been rapid and
phenomenal. The first student exchange occurred Fall of 1994 with
Duchesne High School hosting 24 Ludwigsburg students. The next school
year, 1995, and each year since then, saw exchanges with the four
Ludwigsburg Gymnasiums and Duchesne, Lutheran, St. Charles and St.
Charles West High Schools. Fall of 1999, 42 exchange students from
Ludwigsburg's four schools spent three weeks studying with students at
these same schools and living in their homes. A St. Charles student
delegation returned from a similar visit to Ludwigsburg in the spring
of 2000. The exchange program started even before the partnership
agreement was signed, and shows signs of continuing indefinitely. St.
Charles Jaycees hosted their Ludwigsburg counterparts. 12 St. Charles
County women participated in a locally operated tour of European
Christmas markets in December that included the Ludwigsburg
Christkindlmarkt, and a group of 22 St. Charlesans journeyed to
Ludwigsburg in September and were guests at the city's Venetian
Festival.
There have been a number of trips by private
parties from one
town to the other, the results of lasting friendships made during
visitors' stays in the homes of host families. In June of 2000 70 St.
Charlesans from Lutheran High, members of the Lewis & Clark Fife
& Drum Corps and their parents and 24 members of the Sister City
club, led by Mayor Patricia York, with her husband, Lionel, and their
four children, journeyed to Ludwigsburg to join in their Sister Cities
Jubilee Celebration. Ludwigsburg commemorated their 50th anniversary as
Sister Cities with Montbeliard, the 40th with Rhymney Valley, (now
known as Caerphilly), the 10th with Jevpatrcrija and the 5th with St.
Charles. Altogether over 500 people from the 4 cities journeyed to
Ludwigsburg to join in the gala festivity.
More St. Charles
Sister Cities History--
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