It's Official: Clinton Gets German Sister City
Published: August 21, 2009 11:23 pm
Jason Nevel
Herald Staff Writer
Published by permission from the Herald
CLINTON — The German city of Erfde, located in the
northern peninsula, officially will be Clinton’s sister city.
On Thursday, Clinton officials received a letter agreeing to the partnership
from Erfde’s mayor along with a sign, a copy of the local newspaper, several
books about the city’s history and the city’s flag.
The Clinton City Council established a sister city relationship with Erfde,
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany in April but Thursday’s letter from Mayor Jurgen
Swazinna made it official.
The city of 2,120 people was selected because more immigrants from the province
of Schleswig came to Clinton
County than anywhere else in the world, according
to Second Ward Councilman Mike Kearney, who lived in Germany and helped trigger
the relationship.
“If you were to draw a 50-mile radius around Erfde a tremendous amount of people
in Clinton would at least have an ancestor who came from that territory,” he
said.
The migration began after the Civil War and peaked in the 1880s when people lost
their jobs shipping goods up and down the Eider River in Germany, Kearney said.
People moved to Clinton because it offered the opportunity for work in the
sawmills and on the railroad.
Kearney said the partnership lets schools link up and makes it easier for
students to communicate with one another.
“The whole idea is to promote social interaction with people on either side,”
Kearney said. “It's just like a friendship.”
<- ASHHS Newsletter, click to view
Descendents and Immigrant
Lists from Erdfe, Germany:
Parish Erfde Germany records
