The Smiltene municipality has received a sad news from the twinning city of Willich (Germany) – the teacher, conductor and a man of culture – Mr Wolfgang Brock passed away on May 9, 2023.
Thanks to Wolfgang’s love for Smiltene and Latvia, a long-term cooperation between our cities for more than 25 years has been established. Student exchange trips, amateur art groups` concert visits were organized, new friendships developed between Latvian and German families, and future partnership between the two municipalities has been strengthened.
Last summer we jointly celebrated Wolfgang’s 70th anniversary by issuing a gratitude paper on building and maintaining active twinning and cooperation between German and Latvian nations in education, social, culture and governance aspects, on promoting the international recognition of Smiltene municipality and its development.
Wolfgang has founded the German-Latvian twinning association, which brought together people from the municipalities of both countries every year. He was the executive director of this association since its foundation.
In our memories Wolfgang will be remembered as a strong, charismatic personality, a human orchestra, capable of bringing many around him, inspiring and fascinating by his own life experience, intelligence, humour and musician’s soul. When visiting Smiltene, he always came with a song and said goodbye with a song.
We express our deepest condolences to Wolfgang’s relatives, representatives of the German-Latvian twinning association and all the friends in Smiltene and Willich!
Smiltene Municipality
