Exeter and Bad Homburg Celebrate 60 Years of Twinning in 2025

Next year, Exeter will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of being twinned with Bad Homburg in Germany.  

The town of Bad Homburg lies at the foot of the Taunus mountains, about a 15 minute drive north-west of Frankfurt.  It is a beautiful spa town with a castle and splendid woodland surroundings. 

It is considered to be one of the wealthiest towns in Germany and it is best known for its mineral springs and spa and most importantly, for its Casino.  The Casino in Bad Homburg (Spielbank Bad Homburg) was established over 175 years ago and is one of the oldest and most famous casinos in Europe. 

Bad Homburg is also the home of the Homburg hat, originally designed as hunting headgear but made popular by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII who often visited Bad Homburg.

We feel very fortunate to be twinned with such a fine town which has many strong links with England, the most important is the historic link which started back at the time of King George III. 

Princess Elizabeth was one of King George III's daughters.  She was 44 years old, still unmarried and living in the royal household, when she met the German Prince Frederick of Hess-Homburg, the heir to the throne of Hesse-Homburg, one f the smallest states in the German Confederation. 

Four years later, she married him in spite of her family resistance, largely to escape her domineering mother and have a home of her own.  Their marriage was considered a happy one. 

Princess Elizabeth proved to be very popular with the people of Bad Homburg.  Thanks to her large dowry and annual allowance she had roads built in her new home town and had the Gothic House built in the Palace's grounds.  She also took care of the restoration of the Homburg Castle and was involved in caring for the poor.  Using seeds and seedlings from England she created an English Garden i the Homburg Castle.  She was much loved by the people of Bad Homburg and is still held by them in high esteem.

We are very excited to be celebrating the 60th anniversary of Exeter/Bad Homburg Twinning. 

There will be a visit to Exeter from our twinners in Bad Homburg (29th April - 4th May 2025) as well as an outward trip from Exeter to Bad Homburg later in the year. 

We, Exeter Twinning Circle, are currently preparing a celebratory programme for the visit and are looking for more hosts in order to mark this very special occasion.

We hope you will be interested in joining us.  But please note, language is not a problem - most of our German twinners speak perfect English and they love an opportunity to practice it!

If you would like to join us in celebrating this event - or even hosting - or would like further information please contact our secretary at secetary.exetertc@gmail.com or visit our website: https. www.exetertwinningcircle.org.uk