WILKOMMEN!

For three days, some of Germany's top officials and lawmakers will be visiting Southeast Missouri, making Cape Girardeau their headquarters for the 13th annual Congress-Bundestag Seminar. The fact that the meeting is being held here instead of the East Coast or West Coast is something of a coup for 8th District Congressman Bill Emerson. In the past Emerson has served as chairman of the U.S. contingent, known as the Congressional Study Group on Germany. And when it was decided to move the meeting to a new locale, Emerson extended an invitation that was graciously accepted.

As a result, Germany's ambassador to the United States, Juergen Chrobog, and that country's deputy foreign minister, Dr. Werner Hoyer, are leading the delegation of visitors who will have an opportunity to experience firsthand what it is like to live and work in the rural middle of America.

In many respects, the visiting Germans should feel at home. This area's history is rich with German roots, thanks to those hearty settlers who chose to make this their home. In the intervening years, Southeast Missouri has prospered largely because of the industriousness of the descendants of those first German settlers.

Of special interest is the strong influence of the Lutheran church in America. The Missouri Synod Lutheran Church traces its history to a group of pioneers who came from Saxony and settled mostly in eastern Perry County. Today there are museums that preserve the record of this migration, but the evidence of the German-Lutheran influence is evident in everyday life. Check the telephone directories for towns in this area and note how many names are German in origin.

While they are here, the Germans will explore trade opportunities. Agricultural and industrial possibilities abound, and Southeast Missouri would be richly served by any positive connections created as a result of this week's visit.

More than that, however, the visitors will get to know who we are. They will be exposed to our hospitality, which is famous far beyond any geographic confines for being warm, inviting and friendly. What German visitor could possibly return home after catching a throwed roll and not have fond memories of the visit to Southeast Missouri?

It is too bad that Congressman Emerson is unable to join his colleagues during this visit. The good news, though, is that the medical treatments for lung cancer that are keeping him in Washington appear to be producing positive results. Even though he may be far away in distance from the visiting Germans, Emerson's heart and thoughts are here.