Carmel has established a new sister city partnership with the city of Seiffen, Germany. Seiffen is Carmel’s seventh sister city, and the partnership was made official in early November.

German teacher Angelika Becker said the reason the sister city partnership was established was due to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt. 

Becker said, “We have a lot of (Seiffen) vendors here and we were looking for a sister city here in Carmel. Seiffen wanted to be our sister city and so we agreed because they actually have representation here already at the Christmas market. Seiffen is the Christmas capital (in Germany).”

Sophomore Megan Munson, a German student who hosted a German exchange student, said she agreed with Becker and said the Christkindlmarkt was important to the establishment of the partnership. 

“I think sister cities help foster a sense of community and they help point out our similarities,” Munson said. “Seiffen, in particular, it was just announced this year at the opening of the Christkindlemarkt that we’re becoming sister cities. It’s really important because there are strong, strong ties between Seiffen and Christkindlmarkt because (Seiffen) is basically the Christmas capital of Germany. They’re known for their artisan works: nutcrackers, ornaments and all sorts of very intricate things that are made. A lot of (those products) are actually exported to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt, so I think it’s really awesome we’re nurturing that relationship. We even have woodworkers from Seiffen that come and work here during the Christkindlmarkt season.”

Becker said this partnership could bring cultural exchange between Carmel and Germany. 

Becker said, “It enriches our city and enriches the city in the other country. Seiffen is very unique; it’s a smaller town, it has a lot of crafts and woodworking, and that may be something in the long term that—if we have students from here that want to learn the crafts from (Seiffen)—could happen. (For example) we could have students going over there to learn, do partnerships, and learn the crafts.”

Munson said cultural exchange held great importance. 

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about the kids coming from Germany,” Munson said. “(The German exchange students) were asked all sorts of stupid questions; kids weren’t sure if they spoke English—almost all of (the exchange students) could speak English or were totally proficient at least. (The exchange) brought a lot of realization to people that we were a lot more similar even though we’re from different places.”

Junior Evelina Rubchinsky, who said she plans to take German and also hosted a German exchange student, said she agreed with Munson. 

“(Representation of German culture) is important because we live in the Midwest and a lot of people here have German heritage,” Rubchinsky said, “Just in general, learning about other countries, not just the stereotypes, but the actual culture and history, is important to expand your world view.” 

Becker said it was too early to determine the partnership’s impact on Carmel. 

“I think it has not yet affected Carmel because it was just started a couple of weeks ago,” Becker said. “Mayor (James) Brainard went to (Seiffen) in the fall, and that’s when he made his decision because he said he felt right at home there. We hope that there will be an exchange (between the two cities) and a cultural exchange, not necessarily with students, but when people from (Carmel) visit Germany—why not go visit our sister city? We don’t know really what will happen; we had the CFO from (Seiffen) visit here a couple of weeks ago and he was really impressed and really liked Carmel. We had some ideas of what we could do, but it’s all in the beginning stages (right now).”