{"id":20064,"date":"2023-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=20064"},"modified":"2023-07-26T06:42:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T06:42:30","slug":"panzer-kaserne-opens-gates-to-german-community-for-first-time-in-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=20064","title":{"rendered":"Panzer Kaserne opens gates to German community for first time in 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n The band Mayer performs on the main stage during U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart’s annual Independence Day event. For the first time in 20 years, Germans residents were able to enter post and enjoy the event with their American neighbors.
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\n Fireworks light up the sky at Panzer Kaserne near Boeblingen, Germany as part of the U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart’s annual Independence Day celebration. For the first time in 20 years, the post was opened to German residents in the region.
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\n Riding a mechanical bull was one of many activities enjoyed by Germans and Americans alike at the annual Independence Day event hosted by U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart. For the first time since 9\/11, German residents were allowed access to the post to celebrate with their American neighbors.
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STUTTGART, Germany \u2013 For the first time in more than 20 years, at precisely 4 p.m. on July 4th, the Panzer Kaserne gates in B\u00f6blingen opened to the local German community.<\/p>\n

The local community poured onto the base mixed with excitement, curiosity, and nostalgia about how Independence Day was celebrated before 9\/11 security measures padlocked the gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome everyone to our Independence Day\u2026 for the first time in 20 years we have reopened our post to our German neighbors!\u201d, exclaimed Col. Kirk Alexander, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart garrison commander during the day\u2019s opening remarks.<\/p>\n

A generation ago celebrating July 4th with their American neighbors was a tradition for many Germans living around the base \u2013 a tradition they had dearly missed for the past two decades.<\/p>\n

Schimi, from B\u00f6blingen, reminisced about the past days celebrating America with Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing here today wakes up old memories in me,\u201d she said. \u201cWe used to celebrate every Independence Day together and I made a lot of friends on base.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her husband had almost lost hope to jubilate any holiday with their American friends again, and were over the moon when they saw the advertisement in the newspaper, as they had been looking forward to some \u201cproper American food and sweets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panzer was exactly the spot to retrieve these American goodies, with food trucks lined across the parking lot and an MWR kiosk selling star-spangled sweets.<\/p>\n

Eddie, who lives and works on base, couldn\u2019t contain his excitement.<\/p>\n

“There is so much to do here, especially for children,” he said. “I like the little interactive booths they have around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A range of activities kept visitors entertained from a temporary tattoo booth to a dreaded ride with the mechanical bull.\u00a0Rock climbing, bungee jumping, and a series of water events drew lines of Germans and Americans alike. Many attendees even commemorated the historic day with a family picture at the photo booth.<\/p>\n

“Being able to celebrate Independence Day in another country is amazing,” said Eddie, “but the fact that the Germans are willing to celebrate this day with us is just awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the food and attractions may be a big factor why many Germans gravitated toward the gates, friendship and fireworks \u2013 played to the adopted German national anthem of \u201cCountry Roads\u201d by John Denver \u2013 kept them to the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 The band Mayer performs on the main stage during U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart’s annual Independence Day event. For the first time in 20 years, Germans residents were able to enter post and enjoy the event with their American neighbors. (Photo Credit: Balmina Sehra, USAG Stuttgart Public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20066,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20070,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20064\/revisions\/20070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}