Twinships between the Ruhr and Northern England: History, Present and future Challenges

The earliest twinships between cities in the Ruhr area and Northern England date from the post-war era. Bochum was twinned with Sheffield, Dortmund with Leeds and Essen with Sunderland.
In September 2021, the representatives of the Ruhr and Greater Manchester concluded a memorandum of understanding which was followed by the Innovation Bridge United Kingdom, Business Metropole Ruhr in May 2025. Also, North-Rhine Westphalia will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of its foundation, the “operation marriage” in August.

On 28th January we will start by looking at the twinships between our cities. They are part of a grassroots movement, which has made a major contribution to overcoming the hatred and acrimony between German and British citizens who had fought against each other in two world wars.
The Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft Ruhr fully shares this objective.

We are delighted to welcome the active representatives of the twinships of Bochum, Dortmund and Essen to a panel, which is aimed at exchanging the different experiences in the past, at describing the present situation and sketching out some ideas for the future.

Mrs. Lisa Methling is responsible for the twinships between Bochum and Sheffield in the city administration of Bochum; Mr. Geoff Tranter, who was born and bred in Leeds and lives in Dortmund today; and last, but not least our “own” Mrs. Jean Elsner, who comes from Sunderland and moved to Essen many years ago.

We are particularly interested to recruit more citizens to support us and so you are kindly invited to take part in the discussion following the presentation.