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.