A special chapter in the more than thirty-year partnership between Wetten and Lebendorf (Saxony-Anhalt) came to a close on Monday at the Wetten funfair. The TLF 16 fire engine, which was donated to the partner community in 1997, is now returning home after 28 years of use in a faraway place.
Since the early 1990s, the village of Wetten has maintained a close and intensive partnership with the municipality of Lebendorf (now part of the town of Könnern). In 1997, the Wetten fire department donated its old fire engine - which was actually due to be scrapped - to its comrades in Lebendorf. The vehicle remained in active service there for a further two decades before being used only as a reserve vehicle from 2020.
In June 2025, members of the Lebendorf volunteer fire department set off on a visit to the partner municipality of Wetten in the old fire engine. However, unforeseen events occurred not far from the destination: a puncture brought the trip to a premature end and it was not possible to continue the journey. The vehicle has been parked in Wetten ever since.
However, the incident turned into a fortunate circumstance: the Wetten fire department expressed the wish to take over the now 58-year-old vehicle to preserve its tradition and founded the Verein zur Erhaltung historischer Feuerwehrfahrzeuge Wetten e.V. (Association for the Preservation of Historic Fire Service Vehicles Wetten) for this purpose. The donation was officially completed on the Monday of the fair.
The comrades of the Wetten fire brigade were just as pleased as Mayor Dr. Dominik Pichler about the official handover of the vehicle. Mayor Martin Zbyczewski had also traveled all the way from Könnern to be there.
The TLF 16 will therefore not only remain in Kevelaer, but will also be preserved as a testimony to the history of the fire department and the supra-regional partnership.