GA English on Sunday: News in Brief from Bonn and the region

More than 1,000 graduates celebrated their graduation in Bonn

More than 1,000 Bonn University students celebrated their graduation on Saturday after years of study, at the Telekom Dome and in the evening at a ball in the Maritim Hotel, with about 1,600 guests. It was a farewell that marked a retirement from academic life and also an early entry into the hard world of work. Three universal insights emerged from this event, which was marked by various speeches: "everything is possible", "you can't know everything" and "a graduation cap has four sharp corners".

The new alumni of the University of Bonn join the constantly growing group of more than 200,000 graduates and can now seize numerous opportunities and take a variety of paths, "whether in the direction of science, business, public service or in the service of civil society", as University Rector Michael Hoch explained. "Freedom of science instead of oppression and harassment, openness to the world and exchange instead of division and isolation, respect and tolerance instead of exclusion and blind hatred, facts instead of fake news, democracy and freedom instead of authoritarianism and dictatorship" belong to the self-image of the university, as Hoch explained to strong applause from those present.

The University of Bonn promoted the upcoming subject of cyber security and awarded several teaching prizes to lecturers. Finally, the graduates received their certificates and gathered for the traditional hat throwing.

(Original text: Thomas Kölsch)

The hospitality industry in the region is complaining about falling occupancy rates

Increasingly more and more people are coming to Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district, but pessimism is growing in the tourism industry. The business climate index, which reflects the mood of tourism companies stands at 93.5 points, clearly below the value of all economic sectors in the region of 121 points. At least 41 percent of the guest companies surveyed reported a drop in occupancy since the last survey six months’ ago.

The Chamber of industry and Commerce says that because Bonn is heavily dependent on business travellers, hotel rooms are often empty at weekends. Despite the growing number of visitors, the industry sees a need to broaden the range of offers for leisure tourists. Udo Schäfer, Managing Director of the Tourism and Congress Marketing Company for Bonn und Region is particularly interested in Asia, the USA and the Benelux countries as origins for future Bonn tourists.

Bonn offers tourists Beethoven and cultural activities such as the Museum Mile and the Spring Mouse and Pantheon theatres, but the Siebengebirge are still very popular. The number of visitors to the Drachenfels has once again risen in the first half of the year by 17 percent compared to the same period last year.

The revival of Königswinter as a tourist destination began about 20 years ago, and the region has consciously focused on creating attractive offers for travellers. Königswinter does not only rely on excursion tourists. Especially during the Cologne trade fairs, the hotel industry competes with the companies in Bonn.

(Original text: Delphine Sachsenröder)

Demonstration against the planned closure of children’s hospital in Sankt Augustin

Several hundred parents, employees and politicians demonstrated against the planned closure of the Sankt Augustin Asklepios Clinic, with painted banners, stuffed animals, soap bubbles and clear words, on the initiative of self-help group for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. Many participants in the demonstration were tearful. "Here we have all the specialist disciplines in one place. When the clinic closes, we don’t know where we can go", said Werner Bass, chairman of Spina Bifida’s self-help organization; "I call on politicians to send a signal to the children”.

The mayor Klaus Schumacher announced that on Tuesday the city of Sankt Augustin will have a meeting with the responsible state secretary and officials of the clinic. Senior consultant Gerd Horneff pointed out that the children’s clinic had treated 100,000 children in the past 10 years. "That corresponds to a big city." It is now up to the politicians to ensure the care of the children…we cannot risk that children will suffer as a result of poorer care", said Horneff. The participants applauded the employees of the clinic.

(Original text: Bettina Köhl)

A hay baler caught fire whilst harvesting and caused a field fire

At about 3.50 p.m. on Saturday the Swisttal fire brigade had to extinguish a field of grain that had caught fire on the K67 between Ollheim and Ludendorf. A farmer was harvesting grain when his hay baler caught fire and produced burning bales of straw. These were distributed unnoticed onto the field and caused many small fires. After a short time, neighbouring farmers noticed the fire and immediately came to assistance.

Stefan Schuhmacher, head of the Swisttal fire brigade, explained that the fire brigade had to extinguish individual fires over an area of 500 square metres. A total of 40 firefighters were on duty. In the early evening, the Sankt Augustin fire brigade had to extinguish another field fire on Bülsenstraße, parallel to the A3 motorway. This time the area covered by the fire was almost 6,000 square metres. The cause is still unclear.

(Original text: ga.de)

Fire-brigade called to a burning car at on the L333 near Eitorf

On Saturday morning a parked car burnt out completely on the L333 between Eitorf-Alzenbach and Herchen. The flames blazed meters high. According to police, the Renault caught light at about 10 a.m. on Saturday morning due to a technical problem. The road had to be closed for about an hour because of the fire-fighting. The 25 firefighters of the Eitorf fire brigade not only had to struggle with the flames in the car, but also had to extinguish the adjacent grass and meadow areas that had caught fire, to prevent the fire from spreading to the dry vegetation.

(Original text: Dierk Himstedt)

(Translations: John Chandler)