This year's autumn meeting was supposed to be exciting, because not only the elections of the board of directors were on the agenda, but especially the tour through the historical Fulda, the visit of the old baroque castle and of course the visit of the Karl Bug Grabmalwerk.
After an extensive meal and a cosy get-together on Friday evening in the Wiesenmühle brewery house, the members started their tour of Fulda the next day at 10 am.
They met at a conference hotel called Hotel am Dom. From here, Alexandra Sauer-Bug guided knowledgeably approx.
1 hour through the historical old town.
Afterwards, the association colleagues drove in carpools to Schloss Fasenerie, the most beautiful baroque palace in Hessen. The director of the palace told them about the renovation of the historic building. Afterwards, the group took a walk through the approximately 100 hectare park in beautiful autumn weather and visited the historical Japanese pavilion. Dr. Miller, the director, allowed an exclusive view into the interior of the beautiful pavilion despite the construction work. Afterwards Mrs. Sauer-Bug invited to a visit to the castle to have a look at the collections and rooms. She regularly accompanies groups of visitors through the house and after that the members of the association were given an expert and very interesting exclusive tour.
At 14 o'clock the tour of the host company Bug was on the program. Here the arriving members were welcomed with delicious homemade cake, coffee and tea. After the refreshment, the group went through the workshop halls and the outdoor area. Karl Bug talked about his family-run traditional company and explained various production techniques and explained the machines for stonemasonry work. The colleagues of the association looked around the outdoor area and discovered a lot of historical facts about gravestones and stone objects. The one or other deal was also concluded.
In the meantime, the afternoon had dawned when the members took their treasures from their vehicles for the UHB auction. As usual, many colleagues had great things in their luggage and as always, everyone enjoyed themselves. Christoph Freudenberger once again auctioned off beautiful things with the words "First, second and third". After about 2 hours we went back to the hotel.
After a short break at the hotel, the association members returned to the Gasthof Drei Linden after a 15-minute walk.
On Sunday the new board members Olaf Elias, Alexandra Sauer-Bug and Sebsatian Juhnke were elected. H.Christopf Freudenberger will become honorary member of the association in 2020 and will resign from his office as managing director. The webmaster, Bernd Klenk, has presented a first version of the new website, which will be launched at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020.
Once again, a nice association meeting is coming to an end and everybody is looking forward to seeing each other again in spring 2020, when colleagues Juhnke, Langenbeck and Rupp will host the meeting.