How the Friendship Began
It was in the summer of 1951 that Mr. Kurt Zühlke, city manager of the German town then called Königshofen (later Bad Königshofen), visited Arlington, Texas, at the end of a 3-month, 26-state study tour of the United States. Mr. Zühlke was in the U.S. as a participant in an adult education exchange program, but because he was a city official he was also given opportunities to learn about American municipal government.
A visit to Texas Christian University was planned at the end of the tour, but Mr. Zühlke decided to come to Arlington as well because he was on the U.S. tour with Ms. Irene von Falkenried (who was from Marburg, Germany) and she happened to have a pen pal in Arlington whom she wanted to visit. The Arlington pen pal, Ms. Theda Howell, and her parents, J.T. and Velma Howell, invited Mr. Zühlke and Ms. von Falkenried into their home, where they stayed for a couple of weeks. Mr. Howell was a station agent with the Texas & Pacific Railroad and Mrs. Howell was active in many community organizations.
While visiting with the Howell family, Mr. Zühlke told them about his home town of Königshofen, a small Bavarian town about the same size as Arlington at that time, and about problems Königshofen was having. Because Königshofen was located just a few miles west of what had become the border between East and West Germany, hundreds of refugees from the communist East had overwhelmed the town. There was a real shortage of food and clothing.
Mrs. Howell decided to take Mr. Zühlke to meet then-Mayor Tom Vandergriff and also took him to various community clubs and churches. Thus Mayor Vandergriff and many residents of Arlington learned about Königshofen's difficulties brought about by the stream of refugees, and many who heard Mr. Zühlke's story were moved by it and even expressed their willingness to help. In fact, the City of Arlington and the Arlington Chamber of Commerce decided to “adopt” Königshofen and began a drive among local organizations and individuals to collect clothing, food and gifts for the people in need in that German town.
On September 17, 1951, Mayor Vandergriff wrote to Königshofen's Mayor Kaspar Lurz about Arlington's decision to help out the residents of Königshofen and about the fact that the people of Arlington were anxious to strengthen the bonds between the United States and Germany and especially the bonds between the two cities. Then on November 29, 1951 Mayor Vandergriff wrote to Mr. Zühlke that they “will be interested to know that we already have several thousand pounds of clothing, bedding, canned goods, thread, needles, etc…” and that “over 100 people are actively working on our committees.”
An article in The Fort Worth Press on January 31, 1952, reported:
“The city of Arlington, the schools, the chamber of commerce and citizens individually have adopted the 1532-year-old German town…On the cultural exchange front, every Arlington school room is compiling a scrap book about Arlington and its people. A deluge of letters from people in all walks of Königshofen life have come to the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.”
Indeed, many letters, pictures, and handmade gifts were sent to Arlington by people of Königshofen to thank the Texans for the adoption of their town.
A railroad boxcar filled with items for Königshofen was ready for shipment from Arlington on February 1, 1952. A send-off ceremony was held at the Texas & Pacific railroad depot that day, and Mayor Vandergriff, other city officials, Chamber of Commerce members, the Arlington high school band, other school children, committee members, and the public were on hand. The Texas & Pacific Railroad transported the load free of charge to New Orleans, from where it was shipped, also free of charge, by Lykes Steamship Co. to Germany. The Mayor of Königshofen made the arrangements for transporting the food and clothing from the German port of Bremerhaven to Königshofen.
On April 1, 1952, the shipment was ready for distribution to the refugees and other needy residents of Königshofen, where local charities and organizations made sure all of those in need received their share.
This shipment was the first of four from Arlington.
The second shipment was received in Königshofen in April 1953, the third one in January 1954 and the fourth in January 1955.
The First Texan Visitor
On April 3, 1952, article in Königshofen's newspaper tells about that town's “first visitor from Arlington” after Mr. Zühlke's visit to Texas in 1951. She was a teacher named Mrs. Ervin (spelled elsewhere as “Irwin”), who was actually from Austin and was employed at the American high school in Frankfurt. She had learned from an Arlington newspaper article about the city's adoption of Königshofen. She visited Königshofen in March 1952 and heard on the day of her visit about the safe arrival of the first shipment of food and clothing from Arlington. Mayor Lurz and Mr. Zühlke gave her a tour of their town and asked her to come back in a couple weeks for the beginning of the distribution of the items from the shipment, which she did.
In early 1954, after receipt of the third shipment from Arlington, a report sent by Königshofen to Arlington detailed how the food and clothing from that shipment had been distributed: 377 persons had received goods through the Bavarian Red Cross, 188 through the Catholic Church, 90 through the Protestant Church, 50 “East-Zone” refugees had received goods directly, and 521 other refugees directly, for a total of 1,226 people.
Also, soap from the shipment was given to schools and hospitals, and canned goods also to the hospitals. Königshofen's Mayor ended his cover letter for the report by saying: “Thanking you once again for your kind and noble deed the council is going to express the gratitude of Koenigshofen by a special honoring of Arlington.”
In June 1954 Königshofen named its city park “Arlington-Park” as an expression of thanks and to honor Arlington for its generous help during Königshofen's time of need.
Arlington's generosity was something for which the people of Königshofen were extremely grateful; they saw the shipments not as just material help or an act of charity, but as a true sign of friendship.
The people of Bad Königshofen today have not forgotten that generosity and friendship shown by the people of Arlington.
The Friendship Continues
Although Arlington and Bad Königshofen have changed a lot since the 1950s and city and community leaders have come and gone, the friendship between the two cities has continued. Over the years city officials and other residents of each of the cities, as individuals or in groups, have visited and learned more about their sister city.
In August 1968 a group of sixteen Girl Scouts from Arlington, with their leader Mrs. Bennett, visited Königshofen while on a European trip. Mr. Kurt Zühlke greeted the girls and their leader and told them about the history of his city and also about his visit to Arlington in 1951. Mrs. Bennett, on behalf of Mayor Vandergriff, presented Mayor Wolfgang Mack with a check for 1,000 German marks as a gift from the people of Arlington. The money was used by Königshofen to help pay for a new fountain in one of the town's parks.
Mr. Robert Cooke of Arlington was an official visitor to Königshofen in April 1974 and was accompanied by his son-in-law U.S. General Willard Latham, who was stationed in Germany at the time. Mr. Cooke presented an Arlington flag to Königshofen's Mayor Mack. During a walking tour of the town they were able to admire the fountain that was partially financed by the gift brought by the Arlington Girl Scouts in 1968. In September 1974General Latham represented Arlington at the ceremony in Königshofen during which the town's name officially became Bad Königshofen, designating it as an official mineral baths health resort town.
Bad Königshofen had named a city park “Arlington-Park”, so the City of Arlington in 1987 decided that one of its parks should also commemorate its sister city. On April 14, 1988, the Bad Königshofen Recreation Area in S.J. Stovall Park in Arlington was dedicated. A 29-member delegation from Bad Königshofen was present for the ceremony and a live oak tree, donated by Mr. Max Hölzer of Bad Königshofen, was planted. The German delegation, on behalf of the citizens of their town, presented $1,000 to the City of Arlington toward expenses for the park. The German visitors and their Mayor Wolfgang Mack invited Mayor Richard Greene of Arlington to bring a delegation to their town in October of that year.
A delegation from Arlington led by Mayor Richard Greene, the first Arlington Mayor to visit the German sister city, visited Bad Königshofen in October 1988. Besides the Mayor's regular duties on the trip, he had a special task to carry out. Over 100 students at Rankin Elementary School had asked him to deliver letters that they had written to students in Bad Königshofen, in hopes of starting up pen pal relationships.
In July 1991 a group of Arlington citizens accompanied Mayor Greene to Bad Königshofen to celebrate the German city's 1250th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of the sister city friendship between the two cities.
Mayor Clemens Behr and more than seventy other city officials and residents of Bad Königshofen came to Arlington in March 1992 for the dedication of the new picnic pavilion in the Bad Königshofen Recreation Area of S.J. Stovall Park. In honor of the dedication of the pavilion on March 21, the United States Postal Service authorized a special cancellation at the specially authorized Bad Königshofen Station in Arlington. The official postal commemoration of the event bore two cancellations: Bad Königshofen Station in Arlington and Bad Königshofen, Germany.
The year 2001 marked the 50th Anniversary of the sister cities partnership of Arlington and Bad Königshofen, and special events in both cities commemorated that important year. In July a delegation from Arlington led by Mayor Elzie Odom celebrated the anniversary with our friends in Bad Königshofen. A friendship monument named “The Bridge” and created by four artists from each city was unveiled in Arlington-Park. Symbols of the association between the two cities are found on the four sides of the monument.
Later in the year, in October, Bürgermeister Clemens Behr and a group of residents of Bad Königshofen visited Arlington to commemorate the anniversary. A boulder was unveiled in S.J. Stovall Park as a counterpart to the boulder that had been placed in Bad Königshofen's city park in 1985. The boulder in Arlington bears the logo of each of the cities and the phrase “Sister Cities Since 1951.”
Six of the artists (three from each city) who had collaborated on the friendship monument in Bad Königshofen in 2001 worked together again in July 2003, this time to create the “International Peace and Friendship Monument” in Gene Allen Park in Arlington. The 12-foot stainless steel monument was unveiled on July 12 and bears words and phrases in English and German having to do with friendship and with the history of the partnership.
Arlington further commemorated the longstanding partnership with Bad Königshofen by naming its newest aquatic center after its sister city. On May 20, 2006, the Bad Königshofen Family Aquatic Center in S.J. Stovall Park was dedicated. Bürgermeister Clemens Behr led the Bad Königshofen delegation that was present for the occasion.
Additional visits by Arlington residents to Bad Königshofen took place in late 2007 and in the summer of 2008. In 2007 a delegation led by Deputy Mayor Pro Tempore Sheri Capehart spent several days in the sister city and personally thanked retiring Bürgermeister Clemens Behr for his strong support of the partnership during his years in office beginning in 1990. In July 2008 Martin High School teacher Juliann Warner visited Bad Königshofen with a group of students from her school, as part of their European tour.
On October 10, 2009, Arlington and Bad Königshofen were honored by the nonprofit Texas German Day Council at the German Pioneer Ball held in Irving. Bürgermeister Thomas Helbling and seven other Bad Königshofen residents visited Arlington for the occasion.
September 17, 2011 marked the 60th Anniversary of the Arlington/Bad Königshofen partnership, and both cities commemorated this special anniversary throughout the year.