Exchange projects (youth, clubs)
2nd meeting of young people from the Liceo Asteas (Buccino) and the MTS (Hofheim), 24.06 - 30.06.2025
In April 2024, young people from Hofheim visited our Italian twin town Buccino, where they were hosted by their peers.
On June 24, 2025, the young people from Buccino paid a return visit to their new friends.
It was a great pleasure for the young people to meet up again.
The program began on Wednesday with a visit to our metropolis of Frankfurt. At the Film Museum, we were given an interesting guided tour about the beginnings of film. Among other things, the students were able to experience for themselves how the images in short films were first made to run. A tour of the highlights of Frankfurt, which the German students had prepared, left the 'Buccinesi' impressed, as they are not familiar with such high-rise buildings from their small, rural town.
On Thursday, we attended an event organized by the MTS music teachers: the students' orchestra, choir and dance group were very well received.
The following day, the young people were received by the head of department, Matthias Hees, at the town hall. Here, the importance of such encounters was particularly emphasized by all speakers, Ingrid Bender (co-organizer of the youth project), Teresa D'Accunto (chairwoman of the association 'Amici di Hofheim') and Matthias Hees.
In the afternoon, our visitors had a lot of fun in the local museum at the painting course with the theme Hofheim/Frankfurt/Buccino.
The weekend was spent with the families, with all the young people meeting up in good 'Buccinese tradition' and having a very nice time together.
The young people returned on Monday.
I am sure that this meeting will be remembered for a long time, and that one or two friendships will defy the distance.
With this in mind, I hope that such meetings between the young generation of our twin towns will develop into a new tradition.
by Patrizia Bruni
April 2024: Europe Days at the Hofheim Old Town Festival
FHS organized two days on Tiverton Square
There was a lot going on in Hofheim's old town on the weekend of April 27 and 28, 2024. Street food on Kellereiplatz, vintage cars and Vespas at Untertor, police and fire department on Ludwig-Meidner-Platz and open stores on Hauptstraße on Sunday. Tiverton Platz was all about Europe. The Förderkreis Hofheimer Städtepartnerschaften (FHS) had taken up the theme of Europe in cooperation with the city of Hofheim. Children and young people were to learn about Europe through play. Painting, puzzles and, in particular, a city rally with questions about Europe and the twin towns contributed to this. After the tour through the old town, there was a surprise for every child and every participant. There were also stands from the twin towns: Tiverton, Pruszcz Gdański and Buccino, with products and culinary specialties. Chinon was represented by the Entonneurs, who offered selected Chinon wines and cheese from France. Women from Ukraine had their own stand with coffee, cakes and food from Ukraine. The Freundeskreis Tenkodogo was also there, where visitors could purchase handicrafts from Burkina Faso. A true-to-scale world map in front of the stand showed the true size of Africa. The program on Tiverton Square was rounded off by the Hofheim Kulturwerkstadt. Here, children could paint small cardboard suitcases, and there were no limits to their creativity.
Ingrid Bender, Chairwoman of the Hofheim Town Twinning Association, would like to thank all the volunteers for these two very successful days, without whose active support this event would not have been possible.
Many thanks to all the sponsors: the Hessian State Chancellery, Globus Baumarkt, Frankfurter Volksbank, Taunussparkasse and Obsthof Betzel. Michael Gahler, Member of the European Parliament, also made a donation and personally greeted each stand in the local language.
"The Europe Days on Tiverton Square organized by the Hofheim Town Twinning Association (FHS) have once again brought an additional attraction to Hofheim's old town," said Matthias Hees, the town hall department head responsible for town twinning. Children and young families were particularly enthusiastic about the city rally, where there was so much to discover about Europe and Hofheim.
by Matthias Hees
April 2024: Student exchange in Buccino
The exchange took place from 21.4.2024 to 26.04.2024 in Buccino.
10 students from the Main-Taunus-Schule in Hofheim, selected and supervised by Ms. Inderfurth, and 10 students from the Liceo Assteas in Buccino took part. Ms. Patrizia Bruni, Ms. Catia Dale, her daughter, Luana Dale, and Laura Schön, a former MTS student, also accompanied the group. On site, the German guests were warmly welcomed and looked after by the Italian teachers, Ms. Lordi and Ms. Caporale.
The program was prepared in consultation with the Chairwoman of the Hofheim Town Twinning Association, Ms. Ingrid Bender, Ms. Patrizia Bruni and Ms. Teresa D'Accunto, the Chairwoman of the Amici di Hofheim Association.
It was a nice, appealing program that all the young people enjoyed very much.
In the short four days, the students had the opportunity not only to get to know and appreciate life in the very hospitable Italian families, but also to experience everyday school life.
Two excursions - to Salerno (the provincial town of the region) with its beautiful Byzantine cathedral and to Paestum - helped to broaden the young people's historical and geographical knowledge.
In the archaeological museum in Buccino, the students learned about the rich early history of Volcei (the ancient name of the town), which was made accessible by an earthquake in 1980 and is documented back to the 4th century BC.
With the Italians in a notoriously good mood, the German students spent some lovely days in Buccino with their peer hosts.
by Patrizia Bruni
right: Young people at the "Escape to Freedom" exhibition
June 2022: Forum of diversity - young people from the twin towns meet again
Under the motto "Forum of Diversity - Overcoming Borders Together through Media", young people between the ages of 13 and 17 from the twin towns of Hofheim, Chinon, Buccino and Pruszcz Gdański as well as Ukrainian children living in Hofheim met again from June 2 to 6 after a long coronavirus break.
This project was made possible by the Förderkreis Hofheimer Städtepartnerschaften e.V. (FHS) with the support of the EU. The young people from the twin towns were accommodated with host families and looked forward to spending the Whitsun weekend together with all kinds of activities.
After the guests arrived on June 2, they were welcomed by the city councillor responsible for town twinning, Mr. Matthias Hees. After a snack and drinks, the guests took their luggage to their host families. The following morning, the participants met to visit the "Escape to Freedom" exhibition in the city museum and solve tricky tasks together.
The group then headed to Frankfurt, where after lunch a media scavenger hunt, organized by the provider CityGames, began in mixed-country units.
Saturday started at the Weingartenschule in the "Black Theater", where the group worked together on scenes to be filmed. The evening was spent together with the host families.
On the last morning, the young people first rehearsed the theater scenes they had created the day before and filled out an evaluation form. A joint cooking event was then held in the afternoon: delicacies from the participating countries were prepared on six stoves. These were then served on a buffet for the participants and hosts as well as for some guests. Before the meal, the band from the Hofheim music school played under the direction of Mr. Andrade, there was a presentation of the cities and the young people performed the scenes they had created for the audience. Then it was time to say goodbye: On Monday, the guests departed individually with the promise to meet again in other cities.
This article was written by Marie Charlotte Storch and shortened or supplemented by the FHS.
October 2014: Photo competition of the twin towns
Under the motto "The diversity of our cities - the diversity of Europe", 43 participants met in Hofheim: eleven from Chinon, eleven from Tiverton, nine from Buccino and 12 from Pruszcz Gdański. There were also six participants from Hofheim.
They took part in the youth project "This is how I see my city", which consisted of a photo competition and a stay in Hofheim with a workshop to produce a brochure and numerous topics on Europe.
The Förderkreis Hofheimer Städtepartnerschaften e.V. initiated and implemented this project. In early summer 2014, pupils from one school each in Chinon, Tiverton, Buccino and Pruszcz Gdański and two schools in Hofheim had already taken the photos in their home towns and sent them to Ingrid Bender, who organized the project for the Förderkreis Hofheimer Städtepartnerschaften.
From October 6 to 23, 2014, all the photos were shown in an exhibition at the Chinon Center.
The young people came to Hofheim in mid-October. The Förderkreis Hofheimer Städtepartnerschaften had found hosts for all the young people and their companions.
After a welcome from First City Councillor Wolfgang Exner and a short film about Hofheim made by Sophie Hofmann, the event began with a language game. The young people greeted each other in all languages, said how old they were, what their hobbies were and what their favorite food was. It quickly became clear that Polish was the most difficult language for the German, English, French and Italian youngsters.
Together with media designer Bernd Sangmeister, the young people used the photos from the exhibition and texts to create a brochure about all the cities and in all languages. This brochure was printed and distributed by the young people in the twin towns.
The program also included a visit to the "Schlocker Foundation" in Hattersheim to show how disadvantaged young people can participate in the work process. A guided tour of the workshops by two employees made a lasting impression on the group.
Equipped with baguettes from the bakery, the trip continued to the Weingarten School in Kriftel. There, delicacies from all over the world were created at six ovens: fouées with rillettes, chèvre or wine jelly and tartes vigneronnes from Chinon, minced beef pies with potatoes and fruit crumbles from Tiverton, antipasti, pasta fresca with tomato sauce and stuffed peaches from Buccino, green sauce with eggs and potatoes, Frankfurt sausages, potato salad and Spundekäs from Hofheim. The host families and other guests were delighted and the buffet was quickly plundered by around 110 participants.
The next day, moderated by Mayor Gisela Stang, there was a keynote speech by Alexander Wagner from DGB Jugend Hessen Thüringen on the topic of youth unemployment. After visiting the Gallusmarkt, Markus Judel, Sales and Service Manager at Polar-Mohr, was invited to take part in a workshop. He spoke about his company's products, their worldwide distribution, trainees and emphasized that it is important for everyone to learn languages.
In the afternoon, the young people, the French in historical costumes, presented goods they had brought with them to a stand at the Gallusmarkt - for example jam and wine jelly, antipasti in oil, wines, potato chips, caramel sweets and items from a workshop for the disabled in Pruszcz Gdański.
On "Europe Day", the program included a European quiz from the Institute for Partnership Cooperation as well as a presentation by Thomas Mann, Member of the European Parliament, about his work in the European Parliament and current challenges in Brussels.
In the afternoon, Philip Hofmann, an employee of the city's House of Youth, informed the guests about youth work in Hofheim, and the guests reported on what this looks like in their cities.
There was much praise during an evaluation of the meeting days. The program was met with enthusiasm, further meetings are desired and topics were suggested.
After excursions with the host families, everyone met in the evening at the Jazzkeller Hofheim for the farewell evening. The best photo from each city was awarded a prize of 50 euros and a small gift by the Förderkreis. The winning photo from Chinon was "chateau dans un verre", from Tiverton "St. Peter's church", from Buccino "Chiesa Madre", from Pruszcz Gdański " Bernsteinring", from Bodelschwinghschule "Türmchen in der Frühlingsblüte" and "Kellereigebäude bei Nacht" from Main-Taunus-Schule. Link to the photos at the bottom of this page. The band "Not enough space" gave the young guests another taste of home-made music, and the atmosphere was great.
On the day of departure, many were sad that their time together was over. Addresses were exchanged, the facebook activity was expanded and all the young people hope to see each other again soon. Many photos of the meeting were shown at a follow-up meeting for the hosts. The pictures from the photo exhibition started their journey to the twin towns. Starting with Chinon, they were exhibited in the respective towns for around four weeks.
Anyone interested in the work of the Förderkreis Hofheimer Städtepartnerschaften e.V. can find information, trips, visits and dates on its website.
