Heiko and Diana Treyer adjusted their cowboy hats to hug American friends they hadn’t seen since their last visit to town more than a decade ago.
The residents of Pfaffenweiler, Germany, explained to their children, 16-year-old Jannic and 13-year-old Alena, who the various people were and how they met during their trips to southern Indiana as part of the Sister City Partnership between Jasper and Pfaffenweiler. This summer marked Heiko’s third visit to Jasper, Diana’s second and their children’s first.
Hugs were commonplace among the 200 people at Klubhaus 61 one evening last week, while bluegrass music played and food and drinks flowed. Also common was laughter sprinkled with a mixture of English and German chatter.
“Wie war dein Tag?” a mingler asked Heiko, inquiring if the family had a good day. “Ah gut, gut,” he responded.
“We spent today shopping,” Heiko continued, shifting from German to English. “We bought shoes, jeans, clothes. We all have new shoes.” He then showed off the pair of blue Nikes on his feet.
The woman was impressed. “Werden Sie mehr Einkäufe machen?” she asked.
“No, no, no — no more money,” Heiko said, laughing and indicating with his hands that he has no more excess spending money. “We need more carrying bags to take back what we bought.”
He may or may not have been joking.
The Treyers were among 36 Pfaffenweiler residents who visited Jasper to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the partnership between the two cities. The bulk of the Pfaffenweiler visitors arrived late on the night of July 29, just in time for Strassenfest.
Along with being guests of honor and an active part of Jasper’s annual festival that celebrates the city’s German heritage, which ran from July 30 to Aug. 2, the Pfaffenweiler residents were also treated to other activities: a ride on the Spirit of Jasper train and day trip to French Lick; a tour of the Jasper Group furniture factory and showroom; and the 30th anniversary party. The out-of-country guests stayed with host families, who also arranged excursions for their guests — visits to Huntingburg’s Fourth Street, Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, St. Meinrad Archabbey, Amish communities in Daviess County, local lakes and area forests. Some saw Saturday’s Holy Trinity Catholic School cardboard boat races. Others took motorcycle rides along back roads. Many partook in shopping trips, buying wares in Dubois County, Evansville and other nearby locales.
And, of course, many spent hours chatting with their American families, each trying to speak each other’s language. They noted the same last names Jasper and Pfaffenweiler residents shared — Clauss, Eckert and Gutgsell family members were a part of this trip — and marveled at the differences in their communities.
Pfaffenweiler is a community of 2,500 people situated at the eastern edge of the Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Wüerttemberg, in southern Germany. Jasper, 30 miles west of Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana, has an estimated population of more than 15,000.
“We’ve never had any problems in this 30 years of partnership, never any dispute. Because we are real friends,” Pfaffenweiler Bürgermeister (mayor) Dieter Hahn said. “We will be brave and work hard to keep this partnership. Because this partnership, this friendship means peace in the world.”
Jasper and Pfaffenweiler became connected 168 years ago. In 1847, a time of famine and poverty in Germany, 85 Pfaffenweiler residents from 11 families emigrated to Jasper, which had been founded just 17 years before. Soon after, in the 1850s, dozens more followed.
Jasper residents learned of that connection in 1980. Sabine Jordan of Colorado had been hired by local folks who were looking for a German community with which they could preserve their heritage. Jordan found connections between Pfaffenweiler and Jasper.
Fritz Gutgsell, mayor of Pfaffenweiler at the time, and about 40 Pfaffenweiler citizens learned about the link in 1983 while listening to a lecture by Jordan in Freiburg, Germany.
“I wanted to have a partnership with Jasper,” Gutgsell said. “I thought that would be a good relationship for Pfaffenweiler and Jasper.”
Jasper residents thought the same thing. In 1984, Ruth and Eberhard Reichmann visited Pfaffenweiler and spoke to Gutgsell about a sister city arrangement.
About that time, a group of 11 couples had been planning to visit Austria and Germany to seek a community with which to share a connection. Gutgsell invited them to Pfaffenweiler.
“At first, we couldn’t figure out how we wanted to start a sister city program. But we knew we wanted to preserve our German heritage,” said Gary Egler, one of the 22. “And then Sabine found Pfaffenweiler, where our ancestors actually came from. We all went over — everyone took a phone book — and when we got there, it felt right. We knew this was the right place.”
In May 1985, Gutgsell and 41 people from Pfaffenweiler ventured to Jasper for the official signing of the Sister City Partnership document and were welcomed by residents of Jasper and Mayor Chick Alles. The partnership is part of Sister Cities International, which was established in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“The partnership has been a great enrichment,” Gutgsell said. “We are family, and we will keep our family together. Our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will visit Jasper and welcome our Jasper family in Pfaffenweiler for many, many years, hopefully forever.”
That commitment was reiterated at last week’s celebration with Gutgsell, Bürgermeister Hahn, Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz and former mayor Bill Schmitt signing the certificate confirming the continuation of the partnership. Hahn became bürgermeister in 2006, taking over for Gutgsell. Schmitt was mayor after Alles, serving from 1992 to 2011. Seitz became Jasper’s mayor in 2012.
“This Sister City partnership goes beyond the typical Sister Cities, which maybe would be social or business exchanges. This is ancestral in nature,” Seitz said. “It reflects our heritage and shapes our future. That makes it unique. There is that connection that blends itself when we have visitors back and forth to both cities.”
There have been numerous visits between Pfaffenweiler and Jasper residents. There are official partnership visits every five years and informal and personal trips as well. In two weeks, more than 30 people visiting Europe will stay in Pfaffenweiler and attend the town’s annual celebration, the Schneckenfest.
Over the years, the communities have formed exchange programs at the high schools and on job sites.
Taylor Reutman of Jasper was in Jasper High School’s exchange program in 2011 and spent this past school year at the University of Freiburg, staying in Pfaffenweiler and playing with the band. He played with Pfaffenweiler band members last week at KlubHaus 61.
There is Matt Hilger, who has lived in Jasper since 1987. Hilger came to Jasper on a work-exchange program and was sponsored by Sister Cities of Jasper. He met and married his wife, the former Kathy Young of Jasper, and settled in the Jasper community. The couple has two grown children, Amanda and Alexander.
There are the new first-time visitors to Jasper, such as Jannic Treyer. He and his family stayed with Jason and Sandy Hemmerlein and their two daughters, Tessa and Tori.
The Treyers spent a free day last week at Sandy’s homeplace. Sandy’s brother, Robert Rasche, showed the Treyers the farming equipment Robert and his brother, Ralph, use when tending to the family’s nearby corn and soybean fields. Jannic, who will soon study mechanical engineering in Freiburg, was especially interested.
“I like tractors,” he said in the relatively clear English, having learned the language while in school. “I’ve always liked tractors, since I was a little boy. I saw some old tractors. They were very nice.”
Gertrud Pruss, 66, and her 65-year-old sister, Rita Steffens, were also first-time visitors and stayed with Sandy’s sister, Clara Fromme. The sisters took English lessons for four months prior to landing in America, Gertrud said through words, hand motions and Internet translation. The sisters had extra help with the language, via Clara and Sandy’s sister Dorothy Rasche, who speaks German.
Rita called their first experience in Jasper “wonderful.”
“The people are really nice and very good,” she said in German. “The people take so much time for us. Every day was interesting.”
Gertrud liked Jasper’s landscape. “The wide open spaces, they are well-kept,” she said.
Seitz said the partnership, and the relationships that have developed as a result, give the city stability.
“Because of the background we have with those western European descendants, it’s made us what we are today,” he said. “There are some standards, there are some qualities — like the cleanliness factor — that shape the way Jasper is. That gives us such a firm foundation for where we will go as a city.”
Hilger, who has been involved in the partnership since 1987, said Jasper and Pfaffenweiler’s close relationship demonstrates what former President Eisenhower had in mind when he started Sister Cities International.
“He said that we need to find ways in which we can get the people together, not the governments,” Hilger said. “We’re not going to get peace between the governments. We’re going to only achieve peace between the people.”
Hilger served as president of the Jasper Partnership Commission until 2012; Raymie Eckerle now serves as president.
“The commission acts as a liaison between both communities, to have a central place of communication for the Sister City and the Deutscher Verein (Jasper German Club),” Eckerle explained. “It’s really the people who make the connections and form the relationships. There have been so many friendships that have built through the exchanges.”
Pfaffenweiler and Jasper’s exchange is successful because the people involved have worked hard to make it so, Hilger said.
“It took a lot of hard work. For two small communities to do this, to have so many exchanges, so many visits, on both continents,” he said. “Wow! That’s impressive — times 30.