President meets Chancellor: Lötlinger immigrants dining with Olaf Scholz in Canada – in and around Albstad

Albstadt-Lötlingen – from 1976 to the Ruhr region and then to Canada in 1982: this is the emigration story of Dietmar Biselli, born in Lötlingen, and his parents Gerhard and Franziska, née Linder, who hoped for better career opportunities Was. To this day, Biselli maintains family ties in Lötlingen, but also in Strasbourg, and in recent decades has often been in the Swabian Jura. For 30 years he has been married to Sonja Krossenbrunner, whose parents also emigrated.

Chancellor meets President

Dietmar Biselli, born 1967, has been president of the “Alpine Club” in Kitchener, Ontario since 2020 and therefore received an invitation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to a dinner with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is visiting Canada with the federal minister. Were. Economic Affairs Robert Habeck.

Many of these migrants and their descendants are now members of the “Alpine Club” in Kitchener, which since 1953 has been cultivating and preserving folk music, folk dances and traditions from the southern German-Bavarian-Austrian language region. But the association also pursues charitable purposes – it is one of five organizers of the big Kitchener Festival in October.

German culture is very important

Biselli and his family have been members of the Alpine Dancers group for many years, and with two years as the first vice president, he took over as president in 2020. In this capacity—in addition to him, two of Kitchener’s mayors and the presidents of other clubs with German traditions were invited—he was introduced to the German Federal Chancellor. This is a sign of the importance given to the culture and cultivation of the German-speaking region in Canada, and there is a special reward for volunteers. Peter Boehm, former Canadian Ambassador to Germany and Senator of Transylvania Saxony himself, arranged for the participants to have the opportunity to meet Chancellor Scholz in person.

he has already met the queen

Scholz himself did not give a very long speech at dinner, in which he also addressed global political problems. Host Trudeau delivered his address, as is customary in Canada, in English and French.

In 2002, Dietmar Biselli met Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her 50th birth anniversary and was able to introduce her to “alpine dancers” and their German-Austrian culture.

ancestors had already migrated

The family name Bicelli almost certainly comes from the small town of the same name in the Italian region of Umbria. Franziscus Biselli came to Berenthal in the late 17th century and his descendants are still in the Danube valley and on the Groer Heuberg. People meet at long intervals for family gatherings, in which relatives from abroad also like to travel. Dietmar Biselli’s maternal ancestors, the Linder family, can be traced back to the middle of the eighth century in Lötlingen.