Experience city friendship in Italian lessons

After the Easter vacations, Manfred Kirscher, honorary citizen of Cumiana, visited the Emmy-Noether Gymnasium as a speaker. At the invitation of a teacher, he spoke to two Italian classes about the origins and development of the friendship between Erlangen and Cumiana.

Erlangen has had a close, friendly relationship with the Piedmontese town not far from the metropolis of Turin for 25 years this year, although this grew out of the tragic events of the Second World War: on April 3, 1944, 51 innocent Cumiana civilians were shot by Italian SS units as an act of revenge for a partisan attack. It was only in the 1990s that investigations revealed that the commander of this commando lived unrecognized in Erlangen.

Manfred Kirscher gave an impressive account of how the Erlangen Alliance for Peace, of which he is still an active member today, made initial contact with Cumiana following these findings. In a letter to the Italian town, the Alliance had argued that the perpetrator, who lived in Erlangen, should be brought to justice. In response to your letter, a delegation from the Erlangen Alliance for Peace was invited to Cumiana and, to Mr. Kirscher's positive surprise, was warmly received. The fact that this cruel story has developed into a friendship that continues to this day is unique.

In addition to the past, Mr. Kirscher emphasized that the future for the further development of the city friendship is the students sitting in front of him. That they can learn the "most beautiful language in the world" and thus also come into contact with their peers in Cumiana and experience and deepen this special German-Italian city friendship. The dedicated Italian teacher, Christiane Mrochen, emphasizes: "It is important to me that our students not only learn Italian in the classroom, but also experience through personal encounters how enriching exchange and friendship across borders can be." She has already organized the first individual exchange opportunities with her students and their parents with the Liceo G.F. Poporato in Pinerolo, a larger neighbouring town of Cumiana, where some Cumianesi also go to school. Now an exchange and contact with pupils from Erlangen's friendship city Cumiana is being sought.