History
1981: the regular visits started. Preceding those were the initiatives from Dieter Wehnert, vice headmaster of the Friesenried school, and Ron Nash from North Walsham. Since then, the two towns take turns in visiting each other: one year, a group from North Walsham comes to Friesenried, while the following year, a group from Friesenried visits North Walsham. Each time, there are between 30 and 50 participants. The first trips were made by bus and ferry, the train was also taken twice, and today we fly and then hire a coach.
1981: Renate Grieshaber started the first English lessons for adults in her own house. Ever since then, English courses for adults have been offered by the twinning association each winter. For many years now, the courses are taking place in the Friesenried school.
1982: Ron Nash (left) and Edward Noble present the Friesenried mayor Josef Julius (middle) a picture of North Walsham Market Cross. In the next picture, Renate Grieshaber and Dieter Wehnert are giving a joint speech.
1984: On 14th June the “Twinning Association Friesenried – North Walsham” was founded. Chairpersons were Dieter Wehnert and Renate Grieshaber.
1985: In North Walsham, the visitors from Friesenried receive a head of Christ carved out of old oak from the Market Cross especially for that occasion. This head of Christ was hung up in the Friesenried church of St Josef and has remained there ever since. Also during this visit, a joint meeting of both committees took place.
1991:On 20th April the twinning was finally signed officially by the mayors Neil Woodruff and Wolfgang Gerum in Friesenried. In May, the document was sealed again, this time in North Walsham and this time by Wolfgang Gerum and the new mayor of North Walsham, Anne Rose.
1991: Members of the Friesenried brass band, conducted by Dieter Stelle, joined the visit to North Walsham.
1993: After much renovation and refurnishing by members, the Association’s room in the “Grünen Baum” was officially opened on 30th October.
1993: Franz Schweiger was elected chairman, Rosmarie Brecheisen was the deputy of the Association on 26th November.
1999 and in 2003 the Youth Choir participated in the exchange and also gave concerts in England.
2000: the “Mühlbachtaler Jungmusikanten” (the young brass band) came to North Walsham.
2003: Friesenried members travelled by plane to England for the first time.
2005, The Friesenried church choir gave a concert in the beautiful Gothic Parish church of North Walsham.
2006: Josefine Mader-Schedel was elected chair of the Association on 25th October.
2008: Our partner friends from North Walsham and students from Lovetsch (Bulgaria) the partner school of Friesenried visited us at the same time. The guests brought photos, songs and dances from their homes, for an evening’s entertainment. The theme was: “Europe as our guest. “
2009: a group of 41 from Friesenried went to North Walsham.
2011: We celebrated 30 years of friendship and 20 years of community partnership with North Walsham on the 20th June in North Walsham and on the 8th July in Friesenried. The Friesenried group stayed two additional days in London.
2012: The English guests and their hosts celebrated the 80th anniversary of the sport’s club of Friesenried together, with a day of games and fun.
2013: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were both in the final of the Champion’s League while we were in England. The headlines in the Times, read in German: ‘Willkommen, Liebe Deutsche.
2014: Together with 41 guests we commemorated in Friesenried 100 years since the outbreak of World War I, 75 years since the outbreak of World War II and 25 years of German Reunion with the motto: Peace and Remembrance in Europe
2016: The church choir of Friesenried, and orchestra and soloists Heike de Yong (soprano) and Georg Hiemer (trumpet) gave a festive concert conducted by Michael Mayr. They played the cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” by Bach and “Gloria” by Vivaldi. On this festive evening we celebrated 35 years of friendship and 25 years of community partnership. We also honoured 14 people from both places for their commitment to this Twinning Association.
It was at the same time the last official appearance of Wolfgang Gerum who had signed the foundation agreement of the partnership in 1991 as mayor of Friesenried. On the 6th September he unfortunately died.
2017: 35 Friesenried guests came to North Walsham of whom 11 stayed two more days in London.
2018: 29 North Walsham guests came to Friesenried. In the Autumn of the same year a group of five delegates accepted the invitation for the “Civic Dinner” in North Walsham to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the 1st World War . Mayor Bernhard Huber gave a speech that was later cited and printed several times.
In 2019, 29 Friesenried guests aged, between 10 to 73 set out on their journey, most of them by plane two by train and ferry and one by train (via the tunnel).