Regardless of federal allegiance, the Waterloo Region was politically in touch with the outside world. In 1871, the town of Berlin celebrated the end of the Franco-Prussian War with the Friedensfest. The Berlin city council also raised funds for national and international disasters. In 1886, they raised funds to support both Vancouver and Chicago after disastrous fires. Raising these funds is significant, as Berlin and Waterloo became the top donors, nationally, to the Canadian Patriotic Fund during the First World War.
(Celebration of Cityhood 1912. Berlin: The German Printing and Publishing Co of Berlin, 1912.)
