Since 1974, the Latymer School has been running an exchange programme with Heisenberg Gymnasium in our Enfield Twin Town of Gladbeck, Germany. A Latymer delegation was part of the first official Enfield visit to Germany in 1973, and we have been arranging annual exchanges between students & their families in Gladbeck every year since 1974, with the exception of the Covid lockdowns. 

It is incredibly rare to have such a long running continuous school exchange, and we are very excited and proud to be celebrating our 50-year anniversary this year. 

To mark the occasion, you will find below two articles, both written by David Wastell, class of 1975 (1968 joiner). 

The first one is the very first article written by students on the exchange, from the 1974 school magazine. 

Then below are David's memories and reflections on this trip, 50 years on. 

The Gladbeck we arrived at on that first exchange in 1974 really was another world – from Enfield at the time, and from Germany today. 

Compared to Enfield it already seemed newer, materially more prosperous, and more relaxed in many ways – from the classrooms where our German counterparts (16 or 17 at the time) smoked and listened to the radio, nobody in a uniform, to the bars and a dingy basement 'Diskoteque' where beer and wine flowed without question during daytime drinking sessions. 

It was also from a very different era: that of West Germany. This was the 'federal' republic, separated by 800 miles of concrete and steel defences from the Communist 'democratic republic' of East Germany, and its former capital (itself also divided by the infamous wall) stranded far to the east. It was a country whose industry (very visible around Gladbeck) had helped it quickly grow rich again since the end of the second world war, but which felt the acute existential threat of the Soviet military (and that of its satellite states). It was shock to learn that the long-haired boys lolling with their lagers and cigarettes would soon be off to military service – because "the Russians are too close", as one put it. 

I was paired with a boy called Markus, whose warm and friendly family lived in a bright and modern house, with many original prints and paintings on the walls – it turned out his father Wilhelm was a locally celebrated abstract artist and (I later learnt) sculptor. He very kindly gave me a large and colourful print to take home with me, and I hung it proudly on the wall of my bedroom, the first original work by a professional artist I had owned. 

Even so, there was much unsaid – partly because none of our language skills were up to a proper conversation, partly because at that age none of us really knew how to address what felt then like the elephant in the room. It was not quite 30 years since the end of the second world war; our parents had all lived through it and, even if they hadn't shared their vivid memories with us, television – then just three broadcast channels – seemed to have heroic war movies on repeat. Not only that – programmes like the Colditz drama series about a high security POW camp and the Dad's Army sitcom were current TV hits. And each in their own ways reinforced war-time stereotypes of the country we were visiting. 

I don't remember discussing it properly with anyone, though it must have cropped up: at some point I learnt that Markus's dad had been a soldier of some kind, but probably didn't like to ask more. In the piece I co-wrote with a friend for the school magazine we noted that Gladbeck had been heavily damaged– either bombed or fought over, I'm not sure – so had few remaining old buildings. Also that one young German had asked me if London had been bombed... 

Did we learn much new German? Hard to say in my case, as I'd just dropped it as a subject because of a timetabling clash against A-level maths. I do, though, still remember a lot – including one particular song we learnt during a noisy coach trip that was far too rude to be included on any curriculum. We were meanwhile struck by the Gladbeck students' language skills. I asked for others' recollections for this piece and Lesley Hayes (née Crundall) recalled: "When I sat in on my exchange partner's English class, I was very impressed by the fact that the entire lesson was conducted in English. It made me think, 'No wonder so many Germans can speak good English; maybe if our lessons were conducted totally in German, we'd all come away being pretty fluent." 

But we did learn that we liked the Germans we met. Some we liked a great deal, in fact, and by the time our Gladbeck students had spent their two weeks in Enfield for the official return half of the exchange, several romances had blossomed – with some follow-up visits as a result. 

We also learnt that older Germans were welcoming, friendly, and extraordinarily hospitable. Our countries may have been at war just a generation before, but now we were rediscovering how much we had in common. It was a little over a year since the UK had finally joined the EEC, and Germans wanted us there with them. Another year later and we were all able to vote, for the first time, in the referendum that confirmed that decision. 

It's hard not to wonder what those we met then would make of our referendum 40 years later reversing it all – or what they think now of how events in Europe are unfolding. I lost touch with my exchange partner many years ago and imagine that was true for most of us – those being the days of letters, absurdly expensive phone calls or real-life visits. 

But I hope they remember us and their visit to Enfield as fondly as we do them, and our time in Gladbeck. And that the same proves true for the Latymer students involved in this year's exchange, a remarkable half century later.