An "active promotion of the European ideal"? References to Europe in British-German town twinning.

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By focussing on selected town twinning links between Great Britain and West Germany, this research project examines which role “Europe” played in these links, which characteristically consisted of a wide array of economic, diplomatic, political and cultural processes and demands. By doing so, the project aims to contribute to historiographical research into the “lived Europe”, thus addressing a research gap in European contemporary history, which has so far largely focussed on the European institutions and thus economic and political processes.With particular focus on the twinning links Kiel-Coventry and Frankfurt-Birmingham, the project examines (1) when and why these connections were framed as “European”, (2) which definition(s) of Europe dominated and (3) how cities contributed to these shifting definitions of Europe. Among other things, the Europe Prize, established by the Council of Europe in 1955, will be used as a probe to tackle these questions. Based on the key assumption that cities possess an intrinsic logic, this project examines how individual twinning links were formed and expanded upon through negotiation processes between the local, regional, national and international level. To highlight the foreign-policy dimension of town twinning, the project will also include the British cities’ twinning links with East Germany: while the GDR tried to use town twinning as a quasi-diplomatic tool, the links – and expectations connected with them – proved challenging in return.