Wasserburg am Inn is a small town with 13,000 inhabitants in southern Bavaria, about 60 kilometers east of Munich. Wasserburg is characterized by its unique location. The city is situated on a peninsula in the middle of the Inn River, which flows from the nearby Alps and almost completely surrounds the town - exactly 7/8 of it. The other special feature is the beautiful medieval old town. At the crossroads of once important trade routes by water and by land, the merchants of Wasserburg achieved great wealth in the Middle Ages. Salt, which used to be very valuable, was particularly important in trade. Due to many fortunate circumstances, the medieval old town was preserved, so that the beautiful old town is one of the most interesting places in southern Germany. Today, thanks to two large dairies, the town is a center of the food industry. The service sector, as well as the health and education sector, also employ a total of around 9,000 people from the entire region.

The town twinning between Wasserburg and Vincennes goes back to contacts and visits of the Wasserburger Trachtenverein in the early 90s, which were made by Ernestine Dillon, a woman from Wasserburg who had emigrated to the region. Soon the first student exchange projects were added. Ralph Ruppel from Vincennes also repeatedly organized the stay of visitor groups in southern Bavaria, and of course also visited Wasserburg. It was in this context that the idea of making Vincennes the first twin town of Wasserburg was born.

Through an initiative of city councilor Dr. Ludwig Scheidacher, the “Vincennes Committee” was founded on March 20, 1999 as a counterpart to “Sister Cities” in Vincennes in order to continuously support a partnership with interested and committed members, as well as to reliably organize and maintain the necessary personal contacts, thus relieving the city council of the task. The committee initially consisted of seven people. The objectives set out in the statutes of the Vincennes Committee were obviously able to convince the city council: in its meeting on July 23, 1999, the partnership with Vincennes was decided by an overwhelming majority.

Even if the number of members in the committee remained manageable until today and will probably remain so: A “hard core” of active people looks after the guests from the American twin city during their visits to Wasserburg and organizes return visits to Vincennes. In addition, there are always individual contacts in both directions. And the exchange between the Luitpold-Gymnasium and pupils of the various high schools in Vincennes and students of the Vincennes University remains an integral part of the twinning.

Original German text provided by the City of Wasserburg am Inn