So it\u2019s funny that Schmitz first fell in love with Austin for its grandeur. He arrived as a 17-year-old on exchange in 1994. His host family picked him up at the then-airport in Mueller, and the drive to their house was just amazing, Schmitz says. \u201cI was astonished by how big everything is.\u201d No castles, but the houses seemed huge. In his temporary Texas home, Schmitz had his own room and his own bathroom. And the 17-year-old Austin boy he stayed with? That boy had his own car. Germans aren\u2019t allowed to drive until they\u2019re 18, but in Texas, \u201cWe can do tours on our own, without any parent, and sit in a car?\u201d Schmitz says, twinkly-eyed. \u201cOh wow.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1994, the Austin-Koblenz connection was new. The two had only just linked through the Sister Cities International nonprofit in 1991. Since then, and in no small thanks to Schmitz\u2019s volunteering, something like 1,000 young Austinites have stayed in Koblenz on exchange, as well as 1,000 young Germans here. How many careers, marriages, and children came into existence thanks to this exchange? \u201cAch, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Schmitz says, though he can think of a few families in Germany. Of course, Austin has shaped Schmitz\u2019s family. He proposed to his then-girlfriend, now-mother-of-four here in Austin. First, he had to introduce her to his \u201cAustin Mom,\u201d German teacher Margie Tiedt, who hosted him during his second stay in the city. Now the kids call her \u201cAustin Granny.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Koblenz connection is one of Austin\u2019s oldest, but the official sister cities count is up to 13. These partnerships cover every continent except Antarctica. Each city has yielded its own unique exchanges: news anchors in Australia, surgeons in Africa, artists in Asia.<\/p>\n
It was a UT-Austin adviser who suggested that Kristie Bryant look into the Oita, Japan, sistership shortly after it was established in 1990. Bryant volunteered for the Austin-Oita Sister City Committee and then joined the Austin-Oita board in 1991. She never left the Oita board. Now, she also chairs the larger board of Austin Sister Cities International<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the very beginning, I was hooked,\u201d Bryant says. \u201cCitizen-to-citizen diplomacy fascinated me.\u201d<\/p>\n Diplomacy is, after all, the core mission. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the first version of the Sister Cities program in 1956, it was in recognition of the damage done to diplomacy in World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome people are taught \u2013 and they are captive audiences \u2013 that others, including ourselves, want war: that we are warlike, that we are materialistic, that we are, in fact, hoping for cataclysms of that kind so that a few may profit, they say, out of the misery of the world,\u201d Eisenhower said<\/a> then. \u201cThe problem is for people to get together and to leap governments \u2013 if necessary to evade governments \u2013 to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Since its conception, Sister Cities International has evolved into a self-funded nonprofit, which sometimes receives federal grants. Austin Sister Cities International, the local nonprofit, operates on a very tight budget \u2013 tax filings<\/a> show less than $100,000 in revenue each year. Some of those dollars from donors go toward scholarships to help elementary and high school students with plane tickets, public transport, and other expenses while they\u2019re on exchange. Sister Cities programs shouldn\u2019t be for only rich kids, Schmitz says. \u201cIt is something for a cultural exchange. We need to open that for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Schmitz envisions the Koblenz connection growing \u2013 more students, more schools. But, as Eisenhower envisioned, everything here comes from the bottom up. \u201cYou need people who want to do it,\u201d Schmitz says. Whether they\u2019re surgeons or elementary schoolers.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764146048_770_NonprofitIssue_LOGO.png\"){kind=logo}
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