Visitors were treated to a children's programme, music, old photos from the construction of the Siedlung from 1951 to Bill Clinton's visit in 1999 and much more. Fancy classic cars were parked in front of the chapel. One of them was the 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 with V8 Rocket Engine, driven by Petra and Christian Klee, who live out their passion for the 1950s. There was a ceremony in the chapel, and the guest of honour was the US Consul General for NRW, Pauline Kao. In her speech, she emphasised that democracy was the most valuable of all forms of government and reminded the guests that democracy in Germany was also partially developed in this place. The Stimson Memorial Chapel is an important symbol of German-American friendship, she said.

The church as the centre of the Amerikanische Siedlung is also important to Karin Ulrich and her sister Brigitte Müller-Schönau, not least because it is the only building besides the residential buildings, a kindergarten and the Embassy Club that escaped the demolition wave. The shopping mall, the post office, the cinema, the school, a swimming pool, a bowling alley and the heating plant - all gone. The sisters remember the cinema especially fondly. "You could get popcorn. That didn't exist in Germany back then," says Müller-Schönau. And Ulrich had an extraordinary encounter through a shrewd manoeuvre. "I had been told that when John F. Kennedy was here, he always used the back entrance to the cinema." On one of his visits, she positioned herself there and got to shake hands with the surprised US president.

For Walter A. Bawell, Kennedy's visit in 1969 was an important moment in the German-American relationship. Bawell came to the High Commisioners of Germany (HICOG) residential estate as a colonel and worked at the US embassy in the 1980s and 1990s. He still lives on the estate today. Kennedy's meeting with Konrad Adenauer at the US Embassy Club was a "turning point", he said at the ceremony. But this relationship had begun earlier, in his eyes in 1954, when young Germans preferred to listen to "rock around the clock" on the American Forces Network rather than homegrown songs. He saw the HICOG settlement as an expression of this friendship. "This community was international from the beginning."

The sisters Ulrich and Müller-Schönau confirmed this. "It was a microcosmos," said Karin Ulrich, "the famous World in a Nutshell. People approach each other, greet each other." She loves the estate because of this element of internationality, but also because of the wide streets and generous green spaces. The local Americans had been very open-hearted and sympathetic, reported two other residents of the settlement. For example, they were always very welcome when the Marines had their "Thank God it's Friday" parties - which was every Friday.

Mayor Ursula Sautter attended on behalf of the city of Bonn, and Deputy Bad Godesberg District Mayor Michael Wenzel also spoke. He hoped that the Embassy Club could be maintained with the help of the Montag Foundation. Mario Weyers, pastor of the American Protestant Church Bonn (APC), praised the fact that the Stimson Memorial Chapel, which President Clinton officially donated to the city of Bonn in 1999, had become a multicultural meeting place through the work of the Association. Besides the APC, a Korean, a Sri Lankan and a Russian Messianic congregation use the chapel. The president of this Association, Angela Beckmann, also praised the building as a symbol of the German-American Embassy.

Residents of the HICOG housing estate in Plittersdorf and guests celebrate the 70th anniversary of the housing estate in front of the Stimson Memorial Chapel.

Most of the workers who built the estate were German, and at times there were up to 3,500 of them, said Jörg Schecker, chairman of the association "Rettet die Amerikanische Siedlung Plittersdorf" (Save the Amerikanische Siedlung Plittersdorf) (RASP). One of them was his grandfather. The architecture is unique in Germany. At the association's stand, visitors could see projects that RASP would like to tackle. For example, preserving green spaces, better lighting, education about waste separation, involvement of the younger generation, a bookcase and a post-box within walking distance. The association also fights against redevelopment backlogs and wants to create a contemporary witness documentation.