history of the partnerships
Over 800 young people, 250 members and 30 volunteers were exchanged as part of the Sino-German partnership. Behind these impressive numbers is a rich history of a diverse partnership.
FIRST STEPS
In 2004 Albrecht Kaul, the then Deputy General Secretary of the YMCA Germany, went on his first trip to China in order to contact the YMCA of China and to get to know Christians in China. He visited some of the 10 YMCAs in the People's Republic of China and felt a great interest in the YMCA in Germany.
In order to report on his experiences, Albrecht Kaul has since given many lectures on Christians in China, traveled to China several times and wrote books about the situation of Christians in China.
In 2005, five YMCA General Secretaries from China travel to the KOMMT Festival 2005 in Kassel as a return visit.
From these trips contacts arose between the two national clubs and many contacts between individuals. But City-City partnerships have not yet developed.
DEVELOPMENT OF A PARTNERSHIP
In 2008, the international working group of the YMCA Nürnberg started thinking about building an international partnership with a foreign YMCA. After many prayers and inquiries in the association, the focus was on a partnership to China, as there were already many individual contacts in the YMCA Nürnberg to China. The goal was then to set up a site-to-site partnership with the YMCA Guangzhou.
In 2010 Michael Götz, the then general secretary of the YMCA Nürnberg, traveled to Hong Kong for the 17th World Council Meeting and the subsequent World Urban Network. After the initial disappointment that the Chinese General Secretaries were not officially allowed to travel to the World Council, they were still able to visit Hong Kong for a day as a tourist. At Dinner, Michael Götz met Dr. Lawrence Yick, the general secretary of the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong. He enabled a contact to Guo Yun, the general secretary of the YMCA Guangzhou. From these encounters, the common goal arose to establish a triple partnership between Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Nürnberg.
In 2011, a delegation trip by General Secretary Karl Lau from the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong and other YMCA delegates to Nürnberg followed in May, which made it possible to get to know and understand each other well. In September there was a direct return visit from 17 Nürnberg delegates including Albrecht Kaul.
In 2012, 102 members of the YMCA Nürnberg traveled to Hong Kong and Guangzhou for two weeks over Easter for the You Yi network meeting.
In preparation for and as a result of this trip, there was a three-month exchange of experts between employees of the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong to Nürnberg (Eric Wong) and the YMCA Nürnberg to Hong Kong (Anne-Sophie Köhler).
On May 9th, 2012 an official partnership agreement between the YMCA Nürnberg, the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong and the YMCA Guangzhou was signed on the occasion of the Chinese-German art exhibition "Go(od) connections" in Nuremberg.
Vivid partnership
2012 was the year of the EU's Sino-European relations with many international projects sponsored. This was of great help in building relationships in our partnership.
Since 2012, Chinese and German young adults have been traveling annually on a mission trip to Romania for social work in the YMCA Domus and the Orthodox community.
Since 2013 there have been regular youth exchanges between Guanzhou, Hong Kong and Nuremberg, in which the Löhe School in Nürnberg, Uni-Y (YMCA's university work) and Vocational School 4 in Nuremberg take part.
Since 2013 German volunteers have been traveling to China every year and do a 10-month voluntary service there.
More about IJFDs (International Youth Voluntary Service) in general can be found here...
Click here for the current team ...
In 2013, 13 Chinese interns from Guangzhou and Hong Kong completed an internship in Germany.
In the summer of 2013, a delegation from Guangzhou and Hong Kong, consisting of the general secretaries and other specialists, traveled to Germany.
In autumn 2013, a Nürnberg delegation from the Advisory Board, headed by Michael Götz and various leaders from church, society and politics, including Günther Beckstein (former Bavarian Prime Minister), traveled to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing.
Between 2013 and 2015 the Mercator Foundation supported the partnership with a generous donation.
In autumn 2014 the German-Chinese exhibition "Go(o)d Connections" took place in Hong Kong.
In 2014 a round table "China" was launched to exchange information in the German YMCAs about which clubs already have relationships with China, which ones are still interested and to build up a network.
In 2015 there was a joint trip to London by Chinese and German interested parties, as well as the "Triple Nation Camp" with the participation of German, French and Chinese YMCAs.
In 2015, the Sino-German partnership summit took place in Hong Kong, at which the General Secretaries of the YMCAs in Chengdu, Hong Kong and Guangzhou as well as Michael Götz from the YMCA Nürnberg and Tabea Kölbel from the YMCA Germany spoke about the status and perspective of the Sino-German partnership .
More information about the partnership summit is available here ...
Between 2015 and 2019 there was an annual basketball camp organized by the YMCA Munich with NBA players from USA.
THE PARTNERSHIP EXPANDS
Since 2018, Lea and Mario Drechsel have been working as full-time employees for the partnership in Hong Kong. In this way, they ensure stability and easier, more direct contacts on site and can accompany the German volunteers on site.
More information about Mario and Lea can be found here ...
Since 2018 there have been increasing tensions between East and West on a political level That is why a vivid partnership for international understanding is even more important.
In November 2018, the YMCA Bavaria decided at the delegates' meeting to establish an official partnership with the YMCA China on behalf of the German YMCA and thus to put the partnership on a broader footing.
In 2018 & 2019, the YMCA Bavaria traveled with a full-time team and a study trip to China to intensify and expand the relationships.
In 2019, the YMCA Allgäu, Bindlach and Schweinfurt began to be interested in establishing a partnership with Chinese YMCAs and will hopefully expand the Chinese-German partnerships in the future.
There is an overview of the current structure of the partnerships here ...
In 2020 a large online meeting took place on the occasion of the 10-year partnership, in which further discussions were held about how the partnership can be further expanded and intensified.
In 2021, a big joint celebration for the 120th anniversary of the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong and the 10th anniversary of the Chinese-German partnership will be celebrated in Hong Kong.
More information is available under current events here ...
OUTLOOK FOR A COMMON FUTURE
We are looking forward to a common future, in which we can continue to build on the partnership together in order to expand and intensify it. With these steps, we want to further contribute to promoting international understanding and to provide young people with an intercultural opportunity to develop into global citizens.