{"id":9678,"date":"2023-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=9678"},"modified":"2023-05-10T06:51:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T06:51:06","slug":"thousands-visit-panzer-firehouse-to-reconnect-with-their-american-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=9678","title":{"rendered":"Thousands visit Panzer Firehouse to reconnect with their American friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n The grand re-opening of the Panzer Firehouse lured thousands of local residents to come and peek behind the curtain of the American military presence in B\u00f6blingen, May 1.
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\n The grand re-opening of the Panzer Firehouse lured thousands of local residents to come and peek behind the curtain of the American military presence in B\u00f6blingen, May 1.
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\n The grand re-opening of the Panzer Firehouse lured thousands of local residents to come and peek behind the curtain of the American military presence in B\u00f6blingen, May 1.
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STUTTGART, Germany \u2013 The grand re-opening of the Panzer Firehouse lured thousands of local residents to come and peek behind the curtain of the American military presence in B\u00f6blingen, May 1.<\/p>\n

The visitors flooded the firehouse, excited to see what\u2019s behind the fence and reconnect with their fellow Americans. The event gave locals the opportunity to get closer to the American military and learn more about the history of the venue, which since its construction in the 1930s had been a German officer\u2019s club, a bar, an American hotel, and now a firehouse and community center.<\/p>\n

On the premise, visitors could purchase hotdogs, burgers, and some American chips, making the experience unique for many and nostalgic for some, like Thomas Fr\u00e4nzle who remembered when the American bases were guarded less heavily.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it nice that the doors are open again,\u201d Fr\u00e4nzle said. \u201cMy parents always speak of how we used to spend Independence Day with the Americans when I was a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e4nzle is not the only person who remembers a time when socializing with Americans was much less complicated. \u201cMy children used to play soccer with the American children, and I have very fond memories of that time,\u201d said Uwe Painke, Head of an educational organization in the local region.<\/p>\n

But when the walls went up after 9\/11, Painke said it felt like the Americans moved to another planet. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you look at the moon, it\u2019s close and yet so far away.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the firehouse the locals enjoyed getting to see up close, many enjoyed having a chat with USAG Stuttgart Commander Col. Matt Ziglar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to talk to the Colonel and told him that I thought it was good that they opened up,\u201d said Painke. \u201cI was amazed that he was so calm around all these people. Usually when you see a head of state or someone similar to that position they are surrounded by bodyguards, but he just mingled amongst the people which I really appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manfred Nagel and his brother Gerhardt also liked that Ziglar showed himself from a very approachable side that day. Their mother used to work in the kitchen of the firehouse right after the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came for the memories,\u201d said Manfred. \u201cIt was our main priority to see the kitchen and Col. Ziglar took the time to show us around there, which was pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Painke hopes the Firehouse grand re-opening is just the first of many cross-cultural events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think any form of encounter between two nations is a good thing and I feel there should be more opportunities like this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 The grand re-opening of the Panzer Firehouse lured thousands of local residents to come and peek behind the curtain of the American military presence in B\u00f6blingen, May 1. (Photo Credit: Balmina Sehra) VIEW ORIGINAL 2 \/ 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 The grand re-opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9680,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9678","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\/9678","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=9678"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9683,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678\/revisions\/9683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}