The history of town twinning in Hanover

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Town twinning as a form of "municipal foreign policy"

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After the Second World War, securing peace and creating international understanding from the bottom-up were the main tasks of town twinning. Hanover was one of the first German cities to conclude a partnership agreement with the city of Bristol in 1947. Partnerships with Perpignan and Rouen in France followed in the sixties.

In the following years, Hanover’s twinning with Blantyre, Poznan, Hiroshima and Leipzig resulted from the citizen’s active involvement in municipal development cooperation, in the East-West relations, and “the peace movement” of the time.

Today, as well as in future, it will be essential to address cultural, social, environmental, and political issues and then jointly develop solutions for them.

1947

First contact with citizens from Bristol

1960

Partnership agreement with Perpignan/France

1966

Town twinning with Rouen/ France

1968

Agreement with Blantyre/Malawi

1979

Partnership with Poznan/Poland

1983

Partnership agreement with Hiroshima/Japan

1987

Town twinning arrangement with Leipzig