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Stuttgart meets 'Sister City' Mumbai at gala wine festival
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Saturday, 28 January, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ronita Torcato
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e capital of the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany, have officially enjoyed a twin city relationship since 1968 though the two cities have been associated since Vasco da Gama's ship touched the Good Bay's shores 500 years ago. (The story goes that one of da Gama's sailing crew who hailed from Stuttgart began trading with Mumbaikars.)
In order to strengthen the cultural and economic ties between Stuttgart and Mumbai, the city of Stuttgart organised with the support of the Lapp Group, a gala Wine Festival in a three-day event headlined "Stuttgart Meets Mumbai".
Held at Hotel ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton & Towers 21-23 January, the Wine Festival was combined with an informative exhibition on tourism, media, cinema and health, lively seminars, great -tasting food (including Swabian delicacies sausage and sauerkraut, potato and ham salad, German breads, apfelstrudel ) and excellent red wines and white Rieslings accompanied by live music performed by Indian and German bands..
This is the third edition of "Stuttgart meets Mumbai" which was attended on the German side by a 50-strong delegation led by Dr Wolfgang Schuster, Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Werner Spec, Lord Mayor of Ludwigsburg, and Andreas Lapp, Honorary Consul of India in Stuttgart and managing director of the globally operating Lapp Group. Bernhard Steinrücke, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, Mumbai, and Hans Heinrich Freiherr von Stackelberg, Consul-General of Germany in Mumbai attended the opening of the Wine Festival which was inaugurated by Dalvi Dattaji, Mayor of Mumbai.
Delegation members included representatives from the Stuttgart city administration, media, film, tourism, health, winegrowers, and musicians. (Another German band had played at Bandra for the Mumbai Festival. Baden-Wuerttemberg is the largest wine-growing area in Germany and many of its wines are awarded prizes every year.) A swank car caught the eye on the hotels lawns in a reminder that Daimler Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, and Porsche are headquartered in Stuttgart.
Dr Schuster plans to hold a grand Mumbai Festival in his city in 2008 to mark the 40th anniversary of the sister-city relationship and has set up an Indian business centre with English speaking staff to facilitate the entry and operation of Indian firms.
The days F&B News covered the event, leaders from the German travel trade Anne Demuth, Thomas Schärer, Vera Cornelius, Peter Wagner, Ralf Eichhorn, and Anne-Greth Paulus touched upon the attractions of Stuttgart, Heidelberg, the Black Forest, Ludwigsberg, Baden-Baden , Karlsruhe and Pforzheim - "lush locales, lakes and castles which can be ideal locations for filming"; the availability of technical crew is an additional plus point. Oliver Mahn, Manager of the Stuttgart Film Festival "Bollywood and beyond" told this correspondent about "the enormous popularity of Indian cinema in Germany." More than 3,500 viewers attended the 2005 Bollywood Filmfest in Stuttgart.
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