Darmstadt

About Darmstadt

The first contacts with Alkmaar date back to a period when the population of Darmstadt still lived in the ruins of a heavily bombed city. The Second World War marked Darmstadt for life. Many buildings of great cultural and historical value have disappeared; an almost entirely new city has been built on the remains of an Old Town.
In the Fifties, the idea arose to “cultivate, promote and maintain mutual friendship between the peoples of different countries with the ultimate aim of maturing the minds and hearts for a “united Europe”. The then mayor, Mr. H. J. Wytema, presented to the IULA (International Union of Local Authorities) the wish to get in touch with a German city. It turned out that the German Darmstadt and the French Troyes also wanted to enter into a jumelage. Soon the jumelage contracts were signed, in June 1958 in Troyes and in september 1959 in Darmstadt. With residents of both cities, lively meetings have been taking place for many years.

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