Jan worked for the municipality of Schiedam. He started his career in 1975 with the Public Works Department. He later moved internally to the mayor's office, which was part of the General Affairs department, General Affairs Secretariat. In this position he had to deal with "exchanges" and city twinning. As far as Schiedam was concerned, this was still in its infancy.
It started with an exchange between the Royal Schiedams Men's Choir Orpheus and a choir in Esslingen. The mayor of Esslingen proposed that Schiedam should join a circle of partner cities. In the 1960s, this proposal was submitted to the municipality of Schiedam, but the then mayor rejected it due to the war history. Years later the request was made again and exchanges were slowly organized. The Schiedam Community Foundation was commissioned to develop this further, which resulted in several exchanges.
It is doubtful to what extent Schiedam really thought about European unification. It seemed that people mainly enjoyed contacts with partner cities, without the deeper philosophy that cities like Esslingen had. They tried to transfer this philosophy to people who participated in exchanges, which was sometimes difficult. Initially, it mainly concerned young people, students, football clubs, choirs and dance clubs, who especially enjoyed going to Slovenia, for example, for a football tournament or to Esslingen for a singing performance.
Schiedam left the circle of partner cities, just as Neath had done earlier. This happened during a difficult period in Schiedam, when the mayor retired in 2006 after 22 years of service. The new mayor, who took over, arbitrarily ended the partner city projects within a year, because he considered them unnecessary and expensive. This decision was made even though long-term contacts with people from partner cities still existed. Jan states that majors and officials come and go. Carefully built contacts often survive the period that an administrator is active, according to Jan. Although he was given another position within the municipality in 2008, he still receives New Year's cards from Vienne.
Friends in a Cold Climate: After the Second World War a number of friendship ties were established between towns in Europe. Citizens, council-officials and church representatives were looking for peace and prosperity in a still fragmented Europe. After a visit of the Royal Mens Choir Schiedam to Esslingen in 1963, representatives of Esslingen asked Schiedam to take part in friendly exchanges involving citizens and officials. The connections expanded and in 1970, in Esslingen, a circle of friends was established tying the towns Esslingen, Schiedam, Udine (IT) Velenje (SL) Vienne (F) and Neath together. Each town of this so called “Verbund der Ringpartnerstädte” had to keep in touch with at least 2 towns within the wider network. Friends in a Cold Climate looks primarily through the eyes the citizen-participant. Their motivation for taking part may vary. For example, is there a certain engagement with the European project? Did parents instil in their children a a message of fraternisation stemming from their experiences in WWII? Or did the participants only see youth exchange only as an opportunity for a trip to a foreign country? This latter motivation of taking part for other than Euro-idealistic reasons should however not be regarded as tourist or consumer-led behaviour. Following Michel de Certeau, Friends in a Cold Climate regards citizen-participants as a producers rather than as a consumers. A participant may "put to use" the Town Twinning facilities of travel and activities in his or her own way, regardless of the programme.
Integration of West-Europe after the Second World War was driven by a broad movement aimed at peace, security and prosperity. Organised youth exchange between European cities formed an important part of that movement. This research focuses on young people who, from the 1960s onwards, participated in international exchanges organised by twinned towns, also called jumelage. Friends in a Cold Climate asks about the interactions between young people while taking into account the organisational structures on a municipal level, The project investigates the role of the ideology of a united West-Europe, individual desires for travel and freedom, the upcoming discourse about the Second World War and the influence of the prevalent “counterculture” of that period, thus shedding a light on the formative years of European integration.
