8th  Meeting of the HOG Pankota in Frankenthal

On 10th of October 2009 the members of the HOG (Heimatsortsgemeinschaft) Pankota met for the 8th time in Frankenthal in the beautiful surroundings of Donauschwabenhaus. 

The meeting had the slogan: „Our homeland Europe “. 

Since our compatriots of Pankota have their domicile in the whole Federal Republic of Germany, the executive committee of our community do not have the possibility to organize additional events to this one. That is the reason of very intensive and emotional discussions as well as of information exchange during these meetings to be held every second year. 

The guests arrived between 10.00 and 12.30 o'clock. They were welcomed individually by the members of the executive committee. From 12.30 to 14.00 o'clock everybody enjoyed the excellent lunch prepared by our hosts from Frankenthal.

Helga Pless welcomed the guests and presented a report on the executive committee´s activity since the last meeting in 2007.

She presented on the one hand a report on the advising activity of the community members living in Germany, on the other hand our supporting those still living in Pankota. This activity ranges from Western to South-East Europe. In such doing, it deals with a bridge we build through Europe.

This activity is possible for the following reasons:

1.In Pankota do still live approx. 250 German compatriots.

2.Each year on 15. August the catholic Kirchweihfest (the catholic kermis) is celebrated in Pankota. The persons attending this fair wear the dresses of our German ancestors, even if the they speak another language that German.

3.The catholic church from Pankota is the oldest place of worship of the town and is at the same time one of the most well-cared-for in the Banat. This fact is to be owed not at least also our HOG. It has been pointed out that the paintings of the church are damaged and that a renovation will be necessary. The financial support of our HOG will be probably necessary.

4. We are also proud that the graves of our deceased ancestors are in a well-cared-for condition due to the initiative of our HOG members and their good contact to the people of Pankota, of German as well as of Romanian nationality. We would only like to mention that this is unfortunately in many of our homeland cemeteries of Banat not so.

As important point of our activity since the meeting 2007 was the direct contact of our executive committee to the needy and old compatriots from Pankota and their financial support.

An important communication way between the members of our HOG is our homepage, always maintained and updated by Walter Muth.

Due to Franz Luttmann´s engagement the family events from the life of our members are published in the Banater Post. He read the names of deceased compatriots in the Federal Republic and in Pankota since the 2007, followed from one silent minute.

After the cash report by Walter Muth, an open discussion of the participants and a photo session of all participants to the meeting, the members of our HOG enjoyed the live music of Horst Reiter from the band Duo Intakt until about 10 o´clock in the evening.

We do gratefully thank to all persons contributing to the success of our HOG meeting 2009.