Friends in a Cold Climate: Esslingen-3

Heide was born in 1947 in Stuttgart, shortly after the war, when there wasn't much money and trips abroad weren't possible. However, a neighbor had a niece in France who couldn't speak a word of German, while she herself couldn't speak a word of French. Despite this, they played together during vacations, which was an unforgettable experience.
She has a sister who is 16 years older. One day, her sister met a Dutch woman on the street who asked for directions. Her sister invited the woman home, and she became like a third daughter in the family. This was her first contact with other countries and cultures.
When the adults were sitting at the table—her parents, uncle, aunt, the children had to leave because the adults were talking. Het father had volunteered for the war. Heide has have only seen photos of him on a horse, always saying that horses are very loyal comrades. She didn't know what he did in the war; it was never discussed.
His youngest brother was also drafted into the Wehrmacht at 19. Her grandmother, was perhaps in the NSDAP, since people always said, "Here come your brown women again," referring to her women's group. Heide doesn’t know how her parents felt about Europe, but living with the French girl who always came in the summer and the Dutch woman , was just a normal thing.
When she was 16, her mother suggested she worked as a counselor at a summer camp. She did this and enjoyed it a lot. At the camp, she met a group from a French partner city, which further sparked her interest in other cultures. After getting married and having a daughter, she began to think about what to do next when she turned 30. She was asked if she wanted to do some volunteer work with the city youth association, and this is how her engagement began.
Otto Weinmann, one of the initiators, once said something along the lines of, "We need to reach out to other countries now." There were meetings of interested people, and from stories and photos, she knowsit started with France. In the beginning, it wasn't much; they were searching for a structure and looking for cities with a similar number of inhabitants. At that time, this was very much in demand because young people couldn't easily go on vacation. Of course, this has changed a lot.
Additionally, the young people often didn't know where these connections came from or the political background behind them. She also remembers welcome parties where city officials were present. In one speech, it was emphasized how important these connections were and how crucial it was to carry them into the partner cities through the youth. In many encounters, people came closer simply through communicating, sharing stories, singing, and dancing, despite language barriers. There were also private conversations, but in the beginning, the young people primarily wanted to meet other young people.
In Esslingen there was a working group for international affairs that not only met for the summer exchange, but also did a lot of other things together. Then there was the so-called roadmap conference. Once a year, delegates from the various parties met and thought about what could be done. The head of the Esllingen organization Otto Weinmann, was like the father of youth exchange for her.

海德于1947年出生在斯图加特，时值战后不久，物资匮乏且无法出国旅行。然而，邻居有一位在法国的侄女——女孩一句德语也不会说，而海德自己也完全不懂法语——尽管如此，她们仍在假期一起玩耍，这段经历令她难以忘怀。

她有一个年长16岁的姐姐。一天，姐姐在街上遇到一位问路的荷兰女性，便邀请对方回家，这位女性后来如同家中的第三个女儿一般。这是海德首次接触其他国家与文化。

当大人们（父母、叔叔、阿姨）围坐在桌旁交谈时，孩子们必须离开。她的父亲曾志愿参战。海德只见过他骑在马上的照片，父亲总说马是非常忠诚的战友。她不知道父亲在战争中做过什么——这件事从未被提及。

她的小叔（父亲的弟弟）19岁时也被征召加入国防军（Wehrmacht）。她的祖母或许曾是纳粹党（NSDAP）成员，因为人们总说‘你们的褐衫女又来了’——这句话指的是祖母所在的妇女团体。海德不知道父母对欧洲的看法，但与每年夏天来访的法国女孩及那位荷兰女性一起生活，对她而言只是寻常之事。

16岁时，母亲建议她去夏令营担任辅导员。她欣然应允并乐在其中。在夏令营里，她遇到了来自法国友好城市的团体，这进一步激发了她对其他文化的兴趣。结婚生女后，30岁的她开始思考下一步该做什么。有人邀请她参与市青年协会的志愿工作，她的投身之路由此开启。

发起人之一奥托·魏因曼曾说过类似这样的话："我们现在需要与其他国家建立联系。"有志之士们召开了会议，从流传的故事与照片中，海德得知这项事业始于法国。起初规模不大，他们一边探索组织架构，一边寻找人口数量相近的城市。当时这项工作需求迫切，因为年轻人难以轻易外出度假。当然，如今情况已大不相同。

此外，年轻人往往不知道这些联系的起源或背后的政治背景。她还记得有市政官员出席的欢迎派对。某次演讲中，人们强调了这些联系的重要性，以及通过青年将其传递到友好城市的关键意义。在许多交流中，尽管存在语言障碍，人们仍通过沟通、分享故事、唱歌跳舞拉近了距离。私下交流也有发生，但起初年轻人的首要愿望是与同龄人相识。

埃斯林根（Esslingen）设有国际事务工作组，该组不仅为夏季交流活动会面，还共同开展了许多其他工作。此外还有所谓的路线图会议：各方代表每年齐聚一次，商讨未来计划。对海德而言，埃斯林根组织负责人奥托·魏因曼就像青年交流事业的父亲一般。