The Friends of Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences – Cleve Campus e.V. invited members of the university community to a pre-Christmas party in the canteen.
There he was: about four metres tall, with a hint of curly hair, a bushy beard, a friendly expression and broad shoulders. Master confectioner Walter Heicks had inscribed the words ‘Campus Cleve’ on the ‘Holy Man’, who had been carried from the new oven at the Cleve bakery onto the huge table in the canteen of the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. There was no doubt about it: amongst the 600 guests – with all due respect to University President Dr Heide Naderer and Chair of the Friends of the University Peter Wack – the giant Weckmann in his heavy boots remained the undisputed star of the evening. Walter Heicks himself had spent a few hours that day – “as a team of two”, as he put it – working on this display. In the late afternoon, he was given the most prominent spot in the canteen, before the University President and the Chair of the Friends’ Association then offered the first slices of the baked figure for everyone to enjoy. Large slices of white bread, a thick spread of butter and plenty of soft cheese – once again, this was the festive menu for the international student body, for whom the Campus Cleve Weckmann meal has become a firm fixture in the student calendar.
Even as he delivered his welcome speech in English, Wack had to admit that he still hadn’t found a proper translation for the word ‘Weckmann’. He therefore spoke all the more emphatically about the tradition that this pre-Christmas gathering – set against the backdrop of a huge Christmas tree and the illuminated Schwanenburg – has already established. He said it was a pleasure to see that more and more members of the Friends’ Association were taking advantage of this get-together to socialise just before Christmas. A coach full of students had travelled to Kleve from the Kamp-Lintfort university campus, and supporters from Kevelaer, Weeze, Emmerich am Rhein and, in large numbers, from the ‘Swan City’ itself were present as the President expressed her special thanks to the many hard-working volunteers.
Irina Tönnißen from the Kleve District Economic Development Agency had briefed a group of young students on their catering duties; wearing their red-and-white bobble hats, they became the right-hand helpers of master confectioner Heicks’ team. Lecturers sampled the hot chocolate, which added to the festive atmosphere on the young campus on this bitterly cold winter’s evening. The Weckmann dinner with the Friends’ Association of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences – Cleve Campus was yet another pre-Christmas testament to Cleve’s youthful and international character.
