Address of 1. Bürgermeister Maximilian Gaul
on the occasion of the dedication of Rosstal Street in Frankenmuth/MI

Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen,

first please let me thank you all for the invitation to Frankenmuth and for your cordially welcome. The relations between the people of Frankenmuth to my citizens cannot be compared by the numerous partnerships beetween towns in Europe, or such as between towns and cities in Europe and in the United States. There is another way of relationship, because here in Frankenmuth families are living, which have their roots in our little Markt Roßtal in the middle of Franconia in Bavaria-Germany.

If also a lot of my nearly ten thousand citizens don't know anything about the history of the emigrants of the last century, which have settled here in Michigan, and gave their new home country names like Frankenmuth, Frankentrost, Frankenhilf, many families in Roßtal and here in Frankenmuth have still the same family names, they are supporting the relations between this town of Frankenmuth and our Markt Roßtal through all the times of the last hundred and fifty years of the history.

Our city council had set a real sign of that relationship and of a historical memory of that people, which had left Roßtal in the nineteenth century in naming tree streets in one new quarter of Roßtal with the names Frankenmuth, Frankentrost, Frankenhilf in the beginning of the seventieth years of our century. Since that time, everybody in Roßtal knows the name Frankenmuth in Michigan.

But that is not enough. Knowing only the name isn't enough. Knowing only the historical events isn't a knowledge of history and of the destinies of women and men. Names are reasons for asking. You are standing in front of a street sign and memories are coming. And aren't there memories, then there are questions: why is there such a strange and unusual name.

The relationships between the people of the early Frankenmuth and those who stayed living in the home country are really more than such of familiar kinds. Not only the names kept the same ones here and there. They didn't remain not only brothers and sisters, parents and cousins, they also have been lasting brothers and sisters in the same faith and religion. And this band bounds deeper and better than the all the bands of natural and familiar relationship.

A lot of visits have supported the relations. Souvenirs of the differential visits of people of Frankenmuth in Roßtal oder "Roschtler" in Frankenmuth can even be looked at my office-room in our city-hall. You see: Frankenmuth is in our mind, and in a lot of hearts of our Roschtl people.

It is a great pleasure for the people of Roßtal and me so as for the members of our city council, the Marktgemeinderäte of Roßtal, representated with the second mayor Mr. Fritz Stahl and Marktrat Georg Helmreich, who represents the Heimatverein and the museum of Roßtal as the chairman of that important historical association to stay here in Frankenmuth for inauguration the Rosstal Street. Our city council has specially instructed us to bring you all the best greetings and wishes and many thanks. Let me express you personally many thanks for this sign of good relations back in the home of your roots of your living and your faith. A name of a street reminds of important persons, interesting things of historical matters, and of other towns, villages and countries. The name of this streets reminds of the roots of some families, who have founded this place here in Michigan, who had the courage of the Franconian people, so to say: Frankenmuth. The meetings, just like this, in former times and in the future are giving the guarantee, that Roßtal and Frankenmuth are not only in our minds but also in our hearts. The name of this street here, the Rosstal Street, is always remembering, that there is a little town in Bavaria-Germany, in the heart of Franconia, which is waiting for your visits. You all should know, there is Rosstal, and you all are welcome there not only as tourists, if you want just like as former citizens, as a historical part of us, as our relatives from the United States.

Thank you very much for dedicating this street.

Thank you.