Twinning today
The Montpellier House, as an association registered in France, is part of the Office of International Relations of the City of Montpellier, which can be found in Montpellier in the beautiful “Maison des relations internationales” at the end of the Esplanade. Incidentally, this is also the location of the Honorary Consulate for Germany, which is led by Roland Ickowicz.
The House of International Relations, with its dozen staff members led by Montpellier Metropolitan Region Vice President Clare Hart, maintains lively contacts with the other sister cities. These are (with year of foundation): Barcelona (Spain-1963), Bethlehem (Palestine-2012), Chengdu (China-1981), Fez (Morocco-2003), Heidelberg (Germany-1961), Kos (Greece-1962), Louisville (USA-1955) Obninsk/Oblast (Russia-2017), Palermo (Italy-2016), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil-2012), Sherbrooke (Canada-2006), Tiberias (Israel-1983), Tlemcen (Algeria-2009).
It also organizes and coordinates all the projects that take place in Montpellier in the international field and manages the “Martin Luther King” area, where associations with an international connection can rent premises.
Less than five years after the twinning agreement was signed in 1961, Montpellier was on the verge of something extraordinary. In the Senate minutes of Heidelberg University dated February 23, 1965, the “establishment of a Heidelberg House in Montpellier” is sealed, which is to “continuously serve the cultivation of relations between the universities of Heidelberg and Montpellier and the exchange of students between the two university cities, provide German language instruction and be a home for the German Club in Montpellier”. The top floor of a stately town house in the city center was rented, renovated and inaugurated on October 20, 1966.
In fact, it was not the first German cultural institute in France, as the Goethe Institutes had a head start, but the establishment of the institute as part of a city partnership was a first and still a rarity. The opening of the Montpellier House in Heidelberg in 1986 was a logical consequence.
Almost 60 years after its foundation, the Heidelberg House is still in place, a busy hub of Franco-German exchange relations in Montpellier. Four areas of activity are among the core tasks: The organization of a multifaceted cultural programme, German courses for young and old, a German-language media library and the area of German educational cooperation, which coordinates (extra)school and university projects. Particular attention is paid to Heidelberg’s contributions by inviting local artists, music groups or authors and developing new mobility programs as part of the jumelage.
The supporting association Heidelberg-Haus in Montpellier e.V. is still based at the University of Heidelberg and the majority of the board is active on the Neckar. The state of Baden-Württemberg has been the most important sponsor since the beginning, followed by the Federal Foreign Office, the cities of Heidelberg and Montpellier, the Franco-German Youth Office and many others. They deserve great thanks for making the Heidelberg House a centerpiece of the Montpellier-Heidelberg city tandem.
CONTACT
Maison de Heidelberg
4 rue des Trésoriers de la Bourse
F-34000 Montpellier
Phone +33 (0)4 67 60 48 11
info@maison-de-heidelberg.org
www.maison-de-heidelberg.org
Who maintain a town twinning between Montpellier and Heidelberg
In Heidelberg
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In Montpellier
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