20th German Day of Unity

I found this picture of my daughter, Natalya, when she helped "cut the cake" at the 60th Celebration of "Bundesrespublik Deutschland", the 20th day of German Unity and the 23rd Year Anniversary of the Deutscher Platz. She is sceen here with Beatrice Schreiber, and the Consul Klaus Achenbach (shown here with his wife).

The article below originally appeared in Westcoast German News: Volume 2 Issue 9 Nov/Dec 2009

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Like many people in the German Com-munity, I received an invite to the ―German Heritage Plaza for the date of October 4th, 2009. This is the day to celebrate three things:

A. 23-year Anniversary of the Creation of the ―Deutscher Platz during Expo '86

B. The 20th German Day of Unification (1989)

C. The contributions of German-Canadian Immigration to Vancouver and British Columbia

D. 60 Years since the creation of the Republic of Germany (1949)

My parents, my 8-year old daughter Natalya and I attended this event on a gorgeous sunny Sunday for the first time. Apparently, in the last 23-years, there were only 2 occasions where rain ruined this annual ritual!

Beatrice Schreiber, Chair of the Board of Directors, opened the ceremony by introducing the two young MC‘s. Franziska Shaw was from the Westside German School, while Sebastian Gerhard was from the North Shore German School. The MC‘s, in turn, introduced the speakers & VIP‘s.

Speakers included the Consular General of Germany Klaus Achenbach, Pastor Kristina Breit from St. Mark‘s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Vancouver, Irmi Hoppenrath, the Vice-President of the German Canadian Benevolent Society of BC, and the Right Honourable Grace McCarthy. The main sponsor: Prospera Credit Union also had a representative who gave a very short speech, while the Edelweiss Musikanten, a German brass band, also played throughout the ceremony.

Ms. McCarthy was a mystery to me. So I decided to look her up. It turned out that she had been the Minister of Transportation and Tourism during Expo ‘86, when she brought the Skytrain to Vancouver. In order to beautify the 19 km stretch of the transit line from Vancouver through Burnaby and out to New Westminster, Ms. McCarthy called on 19 multicultural groups to help with the British Columbia Parkway. Of these, only three are still kept in good condition.

The German-Canadian Congress of BC. took on the responsibility for the German Plaza. They created a Parkway Committee and raised enough funds to last for six years. The original plants were donated by Axel Hoyer, the Ebco Company donated plaques for sponsors, and the logo was carved by Mr. Hammerl. When the plaza was completed and the opening ceremony was held on June 29, 1986, there were more than 2,000 people in attendance, including Grace McCarthy, who hasn‘t missed a ceremony yet. Once the original funds ran out, former Parkway Committee members created a non-profit organization in August 1992 to look after the garden on an annual basis.

My parents were to surprised to discover a plaque with their names, the names of my grandmother and my great-grandfather on it, as donors to this heritage plaza. They had com-

pletely forgotten that they, too had contributed funds back in 1986.

After the ceremony, everyone was invited to attend the usual coffee and cake session at the Alpenclub My daughter, wearing her traditional red dirndl (dress), and the General Consular Klaus Achenbach and his wife were asked to cut the first piece of cake. Attendees were given the opportunity to directly donate funds or to buy pots of flowers that were auctioned off.

Although there were more people than expected this year, there were only two children present. The Alpenclub, in an attempt to recruit more family members, has just recently begun offering German children‘s playgroups and events. In contrast, during Expo '86, they had over 1,000 paying members of all ages with many exciting events for families and children. In the last 23 years, with less immigration and more integration, all traditional German organizations are in decline.

Hopefully next year we will see more supportive German families and young people at this event—someone to take over so this beautiful heritage plaza can last forever!

German-Heritage Plaza in Burnaby—pictures by Dietrich Klaue, Elke Porter, Beatrice Schreiber & Pastor Kristina Breit...

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