Reutlingen Trip Recap

 

I truly believe in grassroots citizen-to-citizen diplomacy, and in my role, I use music as the universal language that unifies people, factions and even nations and demonstrates that we all have more in common than we have differences.

My very first three citizen-to-citizen cultural exchanges occurred in 1985 when I did a similar tour for 18 days in the Rhine region of Germany, followed by a tour in 1989 to then communist Yugoslavia, followed by a 1991 tour in Moscow and the Caucasus Mountains of what was, at the time, the former Soviet Union, followed by annual or bi-annual trips abroad for a similar purpose up until this very day.  All in all, we've probably visited Europe more than 30 times over the years and have always tried to be good diplomats for our city, our county, our state and our country.

For those that don't know, Friedrich List  was born in Reutlingen in 1789 and eventually traveled to the United States where he became an editor for the Reading Adler (Eagle) and went on to become highly influential in various political ventures.  His story is fascinating and his link to our current Reading Eagle Newspaper is profound.  There are busts and statues of Herr List all over the Reutlingen region.

Our trip to Reading's sister city of Reutlingen was truly remarkable in many ways.

First of all, our hosts were fabulous and truly understood the entire concept of citizen-to-citizen diplomacy.  The Burgermeisterin (mayoress) of Reutlingen, Barbara Bosch, is dynamic, well spoken, affable and forward thinking, yet deeply respectful of the value of traditions and preserving them.  (We in the band would vote for her to run our city in a heartbeat!)  In the future, all of these folks will be making visits to the Reading region, and if interested, you are welcome to interact with them.

Several more videos will be posted over the next few weeks, and if you're interested, I can send you a link to the entire library that's created on YouTube.

Meanwhile, the Reader's Digest version of what was accomplished over just a few days includes...

- Visit to several classes of students including music and English language students in one of Reutlingen's primary schools, with a vocal performance by the band.

- Visit to the Achalm, the high mountain in the region of Reutlingen, to perform a casual concert for dignitaries from Reading/Berks, Reutlingen and another sister city in Switzerland at the Achalm Haus restaurant on top of the mountain.

- Visit to the nearby university town of Tubingen, Germany to perform a two-hour concert at a historic site called the Nekarhaus Platz along the Nekar River.

- Visit to nearby Lichtenstein Castle to perform a vocal song in an ancient chamber room that was created to showcase regional musicians back in the days of dynastic control of the realm.

- Visit to a nearby cave (I forget the name right now) to perform a vocal song in a special deep section of the cave with incredible acoustics.  The cave has been used as a showcase for special music events for ages.

- Two one-hour performances on Saturday and another two performances on Sunday, for the huge crowd at the annual Schwörtag Fest in Reutlingen, Germany.  These concerts were the main focus of our trip.  The fest carries forward a 600+ year old tradition of officials and tradesmen (and women) swearing their annual oath to uphold the traditions and values represented and honored by their craft, be it wine making or being entrusted to an office of political leadership.  The final oath ceremony was preceded by a special worship service in the Reutlingen Cathedral, followed by a parade including all of us as we headed from the cathedral down the narrow cobblestone streets of Reutlingen to the fest platz where the oath was taken and we performed.

For this occasion, I wrote a new tune called the "Reutlingen, Achalm and Schweiz Hoedown" and it was performed for the first time in public for the private audience of our travel group and the dignitaries from Germany and Switzerland within a chamber in the Reutlingen Rathaus (city hall), just fifteen minutes before we headed out to the fest platz where the version of the tune you see in this video was filmed live for the very first time in front of a mass audience.

The following day we packed up our crew and headed off to Munich in Bavaria where we sang a vocal song within the hallowed walls of the world-famous Hofbrau Haus in the old city part of the town.

Bottom line: We all have more in common than we have differences, and the band and I were honored to interact with these folks in this way. 

Future plans for such musical/diplomatic journeys and interactions include Shropshire, England; Zermatt, Switzerland; a school in Tibet; the Blas' Fest in Scotland and more. I couldn't think of a better way to use vacation time than to reach out to other people, other cultures, other nations and spread the message of unity and oneness.

Please feel free to share the video link and this note if desired.

Thanks for your interest,

Dave Kline