Selected Events 2007

Trams, Trucks, and the Trail of a Saint in Thuringia

Left to right: H.E. Jean Robert Saget, Ambassador of Haiti; U.S. Consul General Scheland; H.E. Horacio Hernan Sevilla Borja, Ambassador of Ecuador; the Honorable Matthias Doht, Lord Mayor of Eisenach; and the Honorable Jürgen Reinholz, Minister of Economics of the Free State of Thuringia at the Wartburg

November 14, 2007. Consul General Scheland and Consul Edie Backman joined colleagues from many countries during the State of Thuringia’s annual Consular Day on November 14, begun as each year with a greeting by Minister Gerold Wucherpfennig. The ambassadors to Germany of Ecuador, Haiti, Liechtenstein and Mali, consuls general of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Poland and Russia, and honorary consuls of nearly two dozen lands toured with State Minister for Economics Jürgen Reinholz and Mrs. Reinholz from the State Chancellery in Erfurt to the historic city of Gotha. There, Lord Mayor Kreuch and County Executive Giessmann acquainted the group with the city and region’s economic renewal and cultural heritage. A streetcar trip from the city center through adjoining towns and forest led to Waltershausen, where with Mayor Brychcy the diplomatic representatives visited the specialty truck manufacturer Multicar. Later, the group toured the state exhibit in Eisenach’s Wartburg Castle commemorating the 800th birth year of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and Thuringia. In their remarks to participants and members of the state’s parliament and cabinet in a closing event at the chancellery in Erfurt, Minister-President Dieter Althaus and Consul General Scheland as Doyen of the Consular Corps reflected on Thuringia’s most noteworthy international partnerships and events over the past year.