The fruitful cooperation between the Gymnasium in Siegburg and the Wł. Broniewski Comprehensive Secondary School No. 1 in Bolesławiec will soon enter its third year. On 29 May 1992, Siegburg Mayor Rolf Krieger and Bolesławiec Mayor Józef Król signed an agreement on mutual contacts between our towns.
The agreement has resulted in a variety of initiatives, characterized by a wealth of forms, particularly in contacts between young people and schools. “Family exchanges” among young people predominate; on both sides, approximately 300 students and 20 teachers have taken part in visits and return visits.
The most beneficial educational and formative results come from a stay of more than a week in the family home of peers, combined with participation in selected classes and an attractive educational programme. That is why we want to continue this form of cooperation. Especially since formal contacts initiated by our schools develop into genuine friendships between families and extend into social life.
This year we are introducing new forms of exchange. From 29 March to 1 April, we will host a choir and ballet group of more than 90 performers from the Gymnasium in Siegburg, which will perform for the Bolesławiec audience on 30 March this year at the “Forum” cinema. The group has prepared a special programme entitled “Carmina Burana”, written by Carl Orff. This work forms an important part of the international musical repertoire. These are songs originating in medieval Benedictine monasteries, speaking of spring, love and the inevitability of human fate. Carl Orff, an outstanding contemporary German composer, enriched the songs with modern sound and composition. The group from Siegburg has performed the “Carmina Burana” programme in Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands, among other places.
In addition to the artistic exchange, we are jointly organizing a meeting (seminar) for groups of young people from Zittau and Siegburg in Krzyżowa – a symbolic centre of Polish-German reconciliation. The seminar will take place from 13 to 18 March 1995. Its topics include issues related to the shared future of Poles and Germans in a United Europe and, in this context, the question of national identity. In the future, taking into account the young people’s strong motivation to learn foreign languages, we plan to organize language camps in Siegburg during the holidays, with the assistance of German teachers.
Cooperation with the Gymnasium in Siegburg occupies an important place in the school’s annual educational and teaching plans and involves a considerable organizational effort by teachers, parents and the community, while nevertheless producing the intended results. It should be emphasized that cooperation between our schools can develop, among other things, thanks to financial assistance from the “Polish-German Youth Exchange” foundation, based in Warsaw and Potsdam. The foundation was established under the Polish-German treaty “On Good Neighbourhood and Friendly Cooperation” of 17 June 1991.
Special heartfelt thanks for the assistance provided to the school in carrying out its cooperation plans with the Gymnasium in Siegburg are due to the town authorities, the Command of Military Unit 4355 and the Bolesławiec Cultural Centre.