A highlight of the week was a 50th Anniversary Youth Concert on Tuesday which brought The Symphony Orchestra of St. Stephan’s Augsburg to town. During the second part of the program, the 80 young German musicians were joined by the Dayton Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Augsburg delegates were treated to the Vectren Dayton Air Show, a Dayton Dragons game, tours of Carillon Historical Park, and the U.S. Air Force Museum. They watched Germany play in the World Cup at the Dublin Pub, enjoyed an American steak cookout, toured City Hall and had breakfast at the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.
Like most tourists to a foreign country, they requested a bit of time for shopping.
“In Germany we don’t have big malls, we have city centers with little shops,” explained Thomas Lis, a delegate who said the baseball game was also a new experience.
“You have such a clean city, with no litter around!” observed Regina Stuber-Schneider, an English teacher who said Augsburg and Dayton have a lot in common including aerospace industries and composite technologies. Augsburg’s local manufacturer — Messerschmitt — created the first mass-produced jet airplane. Augsburg became Dayton’s first sister city primarily due to National Cash Register: 50 years ago Dayton was home to NCR’s world headquarters, Augsburg was the company’s European headquarters. NCR has since left both cities.
Hunt Brown, who heads Dayton’s Sister City committee, said the groups have begun conversations on how to expand both youth and adult programming and and are also working on economic development issues for mutual benefit.
This spring, 17 high school students from Jakob Fugger Gymnasium in Augsburg visited Dayton for 10 days while staying with host families at Chaminade-Julienne High School.
Klass said when the Daytonians visited Augsburg in 2012, they were treated like family and given meat and beer at every meal.
“It was through our Sister City program that I was able to formally connect with the Rigele-Priller family and import their Brauhaus Riegele beer to the United States for the first time in the brewery’s 628 year old history,” Klass said. The beer is now available exclusively in the Dayton and New York City markets and will be distributed nationwide in the future.
At downtown Dayton’s Cooper Park on Tuesday afternoon, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and Augsburg Mayor Kurt Gribl planted and dedicated a buckeye tree, a gift to Dayton from Augsburg.
“A tree is a symbol of growth and fruition — making it a fitting symbol for a friendship and partnership,” said Mayor Gribl.
Augsburg is located in the southwest of Bavaria and is a university town. Dayton’s other sister cities are Oiso, Japan; Monrovia, Liberia; Holon, Israel; and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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