German exchange students visit Reading's City Hall
The 11 students, ages 15 to 17, represented two of Reutlingen's schools, Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium and Friederich-List-Gymnasium.
In the German education system, a gymnasium prepares students for a university education and is considered the most academically rigorous of the three secondary school types.
The later school bears the name of the German entrepreneur, diplomat, economist and political theorist Frederich List, whose legacy unites his native Reutlingen with Reading, where he lived temporarily and edited the German-language newspaper Reading Adler from 1826 to 1830.
The German youths and their teachers, Heike Spiegelhalter and Corina Goesswein, got a brief lesson on Reading's history and government from City Council President Donna Reed and Councilor O. Christopher Miller.
German exchange students from Reutlingen line up for lunch during a tour at Reading City Hall on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Following a lunch reception in Council Chambers, they engaged in a round table discussion of American-European relations.
The student exchange program began in 2002 as part of the sister-city partnership formed by Reading and Reutlingen more than a quarter-century ago.
Students from each city live with an exchange family for two weeks, attend classes and learn about the other's culture
The program is coordinated on the local side by Reading High School teachers Krystal Riegel Martinez and Kate Perkins, who escorted several Reading high schoolers to Reutlingen in October.
German exchange students from Reutlingen Jule Zieger, left, and Johanna Gorlach, both 16, talk about their experience so far in Berks County during a tour and lunch at Reading City Hall on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
The Reading students were hosted by the families of the German students now visiting Reading.
'We got to be friends,' said Jule Ziefer and Johanna Gorlach.
The 16-year-olds, who attend the Kepler school, spent the morning at Reading High School, Ziefer said, and were surprised by the size of the school and number of students.
Their school, with grades equivalent to fifth through 12th in the U.S., has about 1,000 students, they said, comparing it to Reading High's four grades and about 5,000 students.
The group will use Reading as a base for the next two weeks. During that time, they will make day trips to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Washington and New York.
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Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
German shepherd rescue group in Orange County hopes to fetch a miracle
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Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to
Chicago Tribune
9 hours ago
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Harold Pollack: I studied the high male suicide rate. Then I lost my friend to it.
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Boston Globe
9 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Once houses of worship, soon homes for those who need them: More churches are becoming affordable housing
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Second Congregational's church on Conant Street in Beverly was built in 1714, and it shows. The original wooden front door, along with a document signed by the first parishioners, is hidden behind a rickety wooden panel in the sanctuary that Isbitsky can only pry open on certain days. Other pieces of the original sanctuary remain as well, though the building has been added on to and rotated over the years. At its peak, Second Congregational served 750 people, but these days it has just 64 members, most of whom are older. Isbitsky spends most of his time winding through the rooms and hallways of a largely empty building. Advertisement As Second Congregational's membership dwindled, its congregation a few years ago came to the difficult conclusion that it no longer made sense for the church to operate. Before long, they had received multiple proposals from groups interested in taking over the building. One of those came from the homeless nonprofit Lifebridge North Shore, which members quickly identified as the obvious choice. The church has a long history of working with Lifebridge and other homeless groups. 'We see homeless people struggling in our community everyday,' said Jack Terrill, a longtime member of the church. 'The idea that our church could do something to help people was very popular among the congregation.' Pastor Adam Isbitsky addressed congregants during the Sunday service at the Second Congregational United Church of Christ in Beverly this month. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff So, pending approval from the public charities division of the attorney general's office, Second Congregational will hand the building over to Lifebridge in a year or so. It's essentially a charitable donation, which the nonprofit plans to use as a services center for the local homeless population that will complement its nearby shelters. LifeBridge is still figuring out exactly what to do with the space, said executive director Jason Etheridge. It won't be an overnight shelter, but the building is big enough to support numerous services like casework and food distribution. And it's a bit of a full-circle event for the nonprofit: LifeBridge was formed as a soup kitchen by the old Crombie Street Congregational Church in Salem in the late 1970s. Advertisement The pipeline of places of worship being transformed into housing is growing quickly, and some policy makers are hoping to speed it up. A In a state with exorbitant land prices and a general shortage of places to build in the urban core, the large real estate footprint of many religious groups represents an opportunity to make a dent in the state's housing problem, said state Senator Brendan Crighton, who represents Lynn and cosponsored the 'Yes in God's Back Yard.' 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Advertisement But Pratt has also watched out his office window as this corner of Roxbury — near the bustling corner of Tremont Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard — has been transformed in recent years with shiny new apartment buildings with market rents that his congregation, most of whom are longtime Roxbury residents, cannot afford. 'This is a social justice enterprise,' said Pratt. 'We want to make sure that we, the community, isn't going anywhere.' But turning old church buildings into apartments can be logistically challenging. In East Cambridge, for example, nonprofit developer Preservation of Affordable Housing recently began work transforming the rectory, school, and convent buildings of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church into affordable housing. It'll put 46 affordable units into the complex, which covers a full block near Kendall Square, while maintaining the historic brick shells of the buildings, and preserving the still-open church itself. Because the buildings were originally laid out for other uses, each apartment the developer builds will be different, and won't stack symmetrically from floor to floor, as apartment buildings typically do. Many apartments will, though, have the old stained glass windows. Congregants embraced during the Passing Peace portion of the Sunday service at the Second Congregational United Church of Christ in Beverly. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff There are other hurdles, too. When news of the Lifebridge project in Beverly reached the public, some residents were outraged, saying the center would be a danger to the community. At one public meeting, residents yelled over Isbitsky and at Mayor Mike Cahill, though in this case, anyway, the town does not have jurisdiction over the project because it is a transaction between two nonprofit entities. Advertisement 'I don't have anything against the homeless . . . but I just see more and more coming [to the neighborhood],' one resident said. 'And they're not all nice.' When Isbitsky wanders through the empty rooms and hallways of Second Congregational, he thinks about the word 'legacy' a lot, and what churches should mean to communities in a new era when fewer people actually attend them. 'It used to be that people in need would go to the church to find help when they had nowhere else to go,' he said. 'For us, that is still going to be the case, even after the congregation is gone.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at
