Crystal Lake leaders, when first introduced to townspeople in a small southwest German village that was to become their sister city, had no idea the Germans would enjoy square-dancing so much.
Nor could they have predicted that someday they would share a meal of rattlesnake and caribou, laugh over an unsinkable cardboard boat with a beer keg mounted in front, or explore 900-year-old castles together.
“You don’t think your life is going to change, but it does,” said Kathy Anderlik, who is arranging for 40 German guests to visit Crystal Lake from May 17 to May 25. “Outside the United States, you get a greater broadening and awareness of what you take for granted.”
The Crystal Lake residents, through an extensive four-year courtship, have learned much about their sister city, Holzgerlingen, population 12,000, located just southwest of Stuttgart.
But it wasn’t always so easy.
Before discovering each other, Crystal Lake had wooed another German city nearly twice its size that offered a wealth of culture and history. Officials there decided their community had little in common with the Chicago suburb.
Crystal Lake was unceremoniously dumped.
“The town didn’t think Crystal Lake had any class,” asserts Tom Neis, a Crystal Lake insurance agent. For eight years, up until this year, he headed the city’s Sister City Committee.
“They said, `Where is your theater? Where is your ballet?’ They dumped us.”
It was just as well.
Last fall, Crystal Lake and Holzgerlingen leaders formalized their relationship by signing the sister cities paperwork. But Neis and others say the documents would have been meaningless if not for the rich friendships that have developed.
Groups of visitors from both towns visit each other annually. Grade school and junior high school students correspond with pen pals across the world. Crystal Lake Community Band members have traveled to Holzgerlingen to perform in previous years, and will return in July.
A 40-member accordion band from Holzgerlingen performed in Crystal Lake last year, amazing spectators because it sounded like a full orchestra, Neis said.
The sister city arrangement also has provided opportunities for business relationships.
“It’s a declaration of friendship, but you have to have people,” said Neis, who said the Germans were a bit wary of Crystal Lake in the beginning.
An official with Eisenmann Corp. in Crystal Lake, whose parent company is located in Holzgerlingen, helped introduce the two communities.
Even so, Holzgerlingen Mayor Wilfried Dolker warned Neis that the Germans would take their time when considering sister city status.
“In Germany,” he told Neis, “we date a long time.”
“They thought Crystal Lake was `90210,’ ” Neis said, describing the television image of wealthy, spoiled teenagers as Americans. “They didn’t want a flash in the pan.”
Since then, Crystal Lake has proved to hold more than a fleeting interest for its European counterpart, perhaps because its own residents claim German and Irish heritage.
The Germans have participated in Crystal Lake’s annual cardboard boat regatta, square-danced in Union, toured Chicago museums and eaten exotic foods in a local restaurant, “1776.” They said they loved shopping, particularly for jeans because they cost so much less in the U.S.
In Holzgerlingen, the Crystal Lake visitors have delighted in the ancient castles, wholesome family oriented activities and a low crime rate.
Christine Wanner, 36, a Holzgerlingen resident, said in a telephone interview that she found most Crystal Lake visitors astounded by the lack of crime in her village.
“Our children, they walk to school,” she said. “They go to their sports. You don’t have to drive them all over, and you can let your children walk through a festival without being afraid you won’t find them.”
Anderlik, a member of the Sister Cities Committee, says Holzgerlingen reminds her of the days when Crystal Lake was a smaller, closer-knit community with more defined values.
“As the years have gone by, it seemed that was getting lost,” she said. “My mission with the sister city was to redevelop that in Crystal Lake, which is what we found in Holzgerlingen.”
