Difficult times for the TRANS-Atlantic dialogue: Before the start of the “year of Germany United States,” says Johannes Ebert, Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut, what unites Germans and Americans and separates.
Deutsche Welle: Mr Ebert, the transatlantic cultural relations between Germany and the United States still important today?
Johannes Ebert: The are very important for us. The German-American cultural relations continue to be very intense! They rest on a stable Foundation. The German culture of the post-war period has been of America affected. And even today, our culture is strongly influenced American. For example, I’m going tonight with my children in the new Spike Lee Film….
At the same time, in the USA, important German positions were perceived by Beuys on judges, to name just a few. The opening of the Thomas Mann house in Los Angeles by the Federal President as a place of intellectual exchange, recently had a large and positive response.
Certainly, the culture are creators and also the those interested in Culture in the United States, the current U.S. Administration is rather critical. And certainly we achieve the cultural relations is only a part of the population. But these relationships are very tight and intact.
This Foundation acts the in the times Trumps are not more fragile than ever? Germans and Americans see the world now different?
One should differentiate between basic values, interests, and. Both companies are committed, in my view, more the value of freedom. Such values do not change, not by politics. Both democracies are committed to liberal values. This is so, and I hope that it stays that way.
Johannes Ebert, Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut
Regarding the interest policy, as we perceive, of course, a change. But we are experiencing around the world trends, the National and the private in the foreground. The Foreign and the Other to fend off the plays currently in the United States an important role, but in American society highly controversial.
Therefore, it is important that we not make our relations in the cultural field, very intense, that we can ignore that here, maybe something has changed.
The year of Germany is a necessary and meaningful charm offensive?
Charm offensive sounds such short notice. No To Germany years ago, in China, in India, in Mexico, we go now in the United States – in a country that is very close to us. We design programs specifically beyond the metropolises. We work with existing networks, giving actors from Germany and the United States the opportunity to implement joint projects.
The year of Germany is not a short-term reaction to something. It takes but due to its design position on the current state of German-American relations.
The Goethe-Institute operates in the United States, six locations. What do you do for a current image of Germany?
We are in very different places. Today, I regret that we have closed in the 1990-eng – years institutions in Houston and St. Louis, and Seattle – well, actually, just where we are today, actually again should be to guide the dialogue.
The Goethe-Logo in the United States
A current perception of Germany, we, above all, about contemporary art, very strongly about the Film. We have a very large film festival in San Francisco, “Berlin & Beyond”, the largest German film festival outside of Europe. In another project it comes to dealing with sensitive data. And also the German language plays an important role in our work: Almost half a Million Americans learning English!
Apart from such large-scale projects, we operate the student exchange program “German American Partnership Program” and the “Transatlantic Outreach Program,” the American history and social studies teachers to Germany. So, we produce for many years, sustainable exchange and allow precisely that – a perception of the current Germany and a perception of the current USA.
This week, Federal foreign Minister Heiko Maas, a new “USA has declared-strategy” of the Federal government. The goal is a “balanced partnership, in which we form a counter-weight, where the red lines are exceeded. How to fit the “Wonderful together?”
“Wonderful Together”, says Yes, we have many long-lasting relationships. 50 million Americans have German roots. These relationships we want to strengthen. But we want to address in the context of this new strategy – in open discussion – things we see differently. In this respect, this is not a contradiction.
It’s not something unilaterally to enforce or to postulate. But it’s about conversation – about the things that are going well, as well as about the things that bother us in the Moment together.
Johannes Ebert, Born in 1963, is the Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut. With him Stefan Dege language.