At a joint press event, Lord Mayor Frank Klingebiel bid farewell to Günter Heinisch, who had worked in the city administration for a total of 46 years. At the same time, he introduced Rüdiger Skopek as the new town twinning officer. "Continuity is important in the area of town twinning, because our friends at home and abroad need a permanent contact person. This is not a typical administrative job, you have to be able to get involved with people and want to build personal relationships," emphasized the Lord Mayor during the meeting. He also paid tribute to Günter Heinisch's special organizational and improvisational skills in looking after exchange groups from the twin towns.
Günter Heinisch began his training as a senior civil servant with the City of Salzgitter in 1974. Following his training, he worked in the city treasury, in the fines office and finally in the driving license office for over 12 years before moving to the mayor's office in 1996. Now he was visiting Salzgitter's twin towns in an official capacity, much of which was new, but he had already visited the British twin town of Swindon as a schoolboy in 1973. "I found my last job exciting and important at the same time. It was a dream job for me," Heinisch summed up, recalling numerous exchange visits during which he hosted a soccer team at his home, for example, or the spontaneous performance by a Finnish swing and jazz band in the auditorium of Salzgitter-Bad grammar school, the proceeds of which were in turn invested in an exchange trip for the school.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, exchanges with Salzgitter's five twin towns (Gotha in Thuringia, Créteil in France, Imatra in Finland, Staryj Oskol in Russia and Swindon in the UK) have been limited to telephone, video and email exchanges in recent months. From July 9 to 11, the ecumenical working group St. Marien paid its first visit to Gotha under the motto "We dare", with Günter Heinisch and his successor Rüdiger Skopek both in attendance. For three days, the 16 participants experienced a varied program in the Thuringian royal seat. The beautiful and lively city center invites you to shop and linger in the numerous stores and cafés. On the first day, Gotha's Lord Mayor Knut Kreuch welcomed the group from Salzgitter. This was followed by a visit to the Ducal Museum at Friedenstein Castle. The next day, an excursion to the Cistercian monastery of Volkenroda was on the agenda and on the return journey the group visited the Panorama Museum in Bad Frankenhausen.
However, this was not Rüdiger Skopek's first trip as part of the town twinning program, as he has always been involved in exchange trips in recent years. He already has a first major project planned for next spring: a soccer camp in Salzgitter with young people from Swindon.
