Reception at the City Hall (14/01/03)

We had the wonderful privilege of being able to visit the City Hall in Tübingen which also houses the office of the Mayor. Unfortunately the Mayor was not well on the day and was therefore unable to address. Her assistance and also the Mayor of Finance, Mr Höschele stood in for the Mayor (see picture below!). He was however not well versed in English, so his speech was translated for those of us who didn’t understand German. He welcomed the group and briefly told us a bit about the history of the City Hall and Tübingen. Once all was said by Mr Höschele, we then entertained him with out presentation consisting of songs and dances.
We were then served refreshments and pretzels, which everyone devoured very quickly, but also in as classy form as possible. Shortly afterwards Mr Rauch, an expert on the archtitecture and history of the City Hall went on further to give us more in depth information on the building. It so happened that the room we were standing in was used when a person was being sentenced to death. But that didn’t seem to have freaked anyone out too much. After the talk with Mr Rauch we had the honour of taking a group photo with our South African flag on the balcony where only the Mayor stands to address the crowd. All in all, it was a day well spent, especially with the exclusive treatment the group reserved. I’m sure I speak on behalf of everyone by accentuating that the day was enjoyed by all.

(Haseena Mdaka, WITS)