Wiesbaden has been well connected in Europe and beyond for many years: the city currently maintains a total of 18 city and district partnerships. The oldest will soon be 100 years old, while the youngest was only signed in 2023. Right in the middle is the city partnership between Wiesbaden-Naurod and Fondettes on the Loire, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. So you can see that town twinning is a living part of urban society in Wiesbaden.

And yet the question arises: how relevant are town twinning arrangements today? Have they long since fulfilled their original purpose—to strengthen understanding between people in Europe? Or are they now more important than ever in keeping Europe together? And what do town twinning arrangements need in order to be well positioned for the future?

We would like to discuss these questions with:

• René Brosius, Hessian State Chancellery, Deputy Head of Department IX – International and European Affairs 
• Christian Hepp, Head of the Funding Management and Europe Division, State Capital of Wiesbaden
• Birgit Reichwald-Dohmes/Anke Henningsen, Royal Tunbridge Wells - Wiesbaden Association
• Anna Hesse, high school graduate and youth representative on the board of the Naurod-Fondettes e.V. partnership association
• Moderator: Dr. Martina Schaad, Chairwoman of the Naurod-Fondettes Partnership Association, in cooperation with Wiebke Roth, Protocol Department of the City of Wiesbaden

An event organized by the Naurod-Fondettes e. V. partnership association, supported by the protocol department of the City of Wiesbaden, which is responsible for city partnerships.

Cédric Klapisch’s lighthearted ensemble comedy captured the spirit of the Erasmus generation with ease and wit, featuring an international cast, and has long since achieved cult status. 

Twenty-five-year-old economics student Xavier heads to Barcelona for a year to finish his studies. At the same time, he’s supposed to improve his Spanish, as he has a lucrative job lined up at the Paris Ministry of Economy and Finance. Having finally arrived in Barcelona after a painful breakup with his longtime girlfriend Martine, Xavier ends up in a multilingual shared apartment with six other students from all over Europe. For all of them, this marks the beginning of a turbulent year filled with love and conflict, joy and pain, and above all: the search for their own path in life. In short: a year that completely turns their lives—which are just beginning—upside down.

F/E 2002, 121 min., Original Version with Subtitles, Rating: 6+

Written and directed by Cédric Klapisch. Cinematography by Dominique Colin.

Starring Romain Duris, Judith Godrèche, Audrey Tautou, Cécile de France, Kelly Reilly, Xavier de Guillebon, Kevin Bishop, Federico D'Anna, Christian Pagh, Cristina Brondo, Barnaby Metschurat, Wladimir Yordanoff, Irène Montalà, Iddo Goldberg

Advance tickets

• Online: www.wiesbaden.de/caligari (opens in a new tab)
• Tourist Information, Marktplatz 1, Phone 0611 1729 930. Mon–Sat 10:30 AM–5:30 PM
• Box office at Caligari (except during festivals). Starting April 2, daily from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM
• or half an hour before the event begins

Moderator: Eric Marr

Politically controlled media, conspiracy theories, and historical falsification: in "Dissident," Michal Hvorecký highlights the threats to democracy. After several novels and short stories, the Slovak author is now publishing his first non-fiction book and, at the same time, his first book written in German, in which he traces Europe's path after the fall of the Iron Curtain through his own biography. In it, he weaves his own experiences with a razor-sharp view of the political present, the fragility of democracy, and the new resistance fighters of the 21st century. He underscores the dissident legacy of the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and makes an all the more vocal appeal to actively oppose the new shift to the right and to fight passionately for a democratic Europe.

MICHAL HVORECKÝ was born in 1976 and lives in Bratislava. He works as an author and journalist and regularly contributes to publications such as FAZ and Die ZEIT. In his home country, he is committed to protecting press freedom and fighting anti-democratic developments. He is part of the group "Arbeit an Europa" (Work on Europe), which is committed to strengthening European cohesion in a variety of ways.

ERIC MARR (moderator) worked for many years as a news editor, reporter, and correspondent for ZDF. Today, he lives and works in Germany and Czechia as a freelance presenter and journalist.