Stuttgart

Railway stations, trees and organic vegetables: Guest journalist Tatke from our Indian sister city Mumbai speaks with Mayor Schuster.

Mumbai and Stuttgart have been sister cities for over 43 years and the differences between the two are striking. I am now here as part of a Goethe-Institut journalists’ exchange. Equipped with only two days of experience in Stuttgart, I confronted Mayor Wolfgang Schuster with my initial impressions.

Why are there no direct flight connections between Mumbai and Stuttgart? “We are doing our best to remedy that,” Schuster said, because, “a direct connection would make economic sense: Mumbai is India’s trade centre and we are Germany’s strongest exporting region.”

What impresses me are the many trees here in the city. It is so green. Yet one of the biggest differences is the amount of space each person has here. I come from a city that lacks public spaces. Schuster told me that there is an idea in Stuttgart to regain public space for the people. Every Stuttgart resident has an average of 28 square metres of living space. I am unable to rank this for Mumbai; the differences are too great. The world’s most expensive private home is located there, while many people live in slums.

Before coming to Stuttgart I only had the images of Mercedes and Porsche in my mind. For the mayor, that’s not a bad image to have, “After all these are highest level products.” You can read how he campaigned for the multi-billion-euro project Stuttgart 21 and why organic vegetables are important at weekly markets on page 18 of Stuttgart und Region.