From Bach to Hip Hop
Mrs. Uhlig, before we talk about the goals and objectives of the Goethe-Institut within the framework of the Year of Germany in Russia, maybe you can introduce it to those readers , who doesn’t know him yet?
Heike Uhlig: The Goethe-Institut is a cultural institution of the Federal Republic of Germany that operates around the world and has 157 branches in 98 countries. Here, in Russia, there are three Goethe-Institutes – in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. We are promoting the German language abroad. To this end, we offer training courses and take German proficiency exams. We provide advanced training for teachers of German and help those schools where they want to teach German as a foreign language.
We participate in international cultural cooperation and disseminate information about cultural, social and political life in Germany via the Internet, through our library network and individual events. Our cultural and educational programs promote intercultural dialogue and are designed for the interaction of civil societies. We are open to partnership with everyone who is associated with Germany and its culture. Our activities are characterized by independence and independence from political parties.
What is the role of the Goethe-Institut within the framework of the Year of Germany in Russia? What is the main thing in the program of the year and who is it aimed at?
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Knowledge of German is a prerequisite to participate in your events?
Heike Uhlig: Within the framework of the Year of Germany there are a number of events that are designed for learners of German, but in most cases knowledge of German is not required. In addition, interpretation or translation is always provided.
Let’s once again turn to global issues. More than a year has passed since the entire world was confronted with a pandemic. How did this restriction affect the activities of the Goethe-Institut and the implementation of the Year of Germany program?
Heike Uhlig: The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to resort to digital formats much more often. Most meetings take place in this manner. Due to limited air traffic and as a result of quarantine measures, it is often impossible to organize the arrival of German cultural figures and experts to Russia. However, it is thanks to digitalization that many hybrid formats have emerged. For example, during the Pop-Up Festival in Kazan, German participants were “present” through a “live stream”. In the case of film festivals, the Russian public watches the film in the cinema, and the film director also connects to the audience for discussion after the screening. All this, of course, works, but we are very worried about the impossibility of personal meetings. We had to postpone a number of tours and exhibitions until 2021. For the same reason, the big festival of the Year of Germany in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park had to be shifted from August 2020 to June 2021.
We want to arouse interest in Germany among the general public – primarily in the Russian regions
Who does the Goethe-Institut collaborate with in Russia? Who are your partners, in particular for the Year of Germany? To what extent are you guided by their interests and preferences?
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The spread of the German language is one of the most important activities of the Goethe-Institut. What new forms of education have appeared recently?
Heike Uhlig: Since March 2020, language teaching in courses at the Goethe Institutes in Russia has been translated into virtual and online formats. In a virtual format, the study group meets with their teacher on an online platform, where they teach together and simultaneously. There are also online courses led by a teacher, however, in this case, students complete all tasks and exercises independently at any time convenient for them. And only at certain intervals such a language group conducts an oral lesson with its teacher. We even conducted our summer youth camps online, and judging by the responses, everyone really liked it.
How is interest in the German language and German culture manifested in Russia and what characterizes it?
Heike Uhlig: To our delight, the number of students learning German as a second or first foreign language has grown significantly over the past academic year. There are over 2 million German learners in Russia, the highest rate in the world. As teachers and school leaders tell us, their students show a great interest in studying at German universities. In addition, knowledge of German is seen as an important support in a professional career in Russia. This, of course, is also explained by the still close economic ties between our countries. In addition, one should not underestimate the fact that thanks to various scholarship programs, Russian schoolchildren, students and teachers come to Germany for a certain period of time, while German teaching assistants, volunteers or seconded teaching staff work in Russian schools and universities. This is how a live contact with Germany arises, in which knowledge of the languagebut directly in demand. And, by the way, the language courses of the Goethe Institutes and language centers are always in great demand.
It is enough to look at the posters of Russian concert halls to make sure that their programs cannot be imagined without German classical music. But electronic music from Germany and German jazz are very popular here, as evidenced, for example, by the annual Autumn Jazz festival, which we hold together with the Dom cultural center. True, last year, unfortunately, it was canceled due to the pandemic. Together with “Arzamas” we are launching this year a series of podcasts dedicated to German music – from Bach to hip-hop. Together with Swiss and Austrian partners, the Goethe-Institut has been publishing works of modern German-language drama in Russian translation over the past few years. Plays by Ferdinand von Schirach and Theresia Walser were recently staged at the Moscow Drama Theater. A.S. Pushkin and aroused the audience’s interest.
The Goethe-Institut also acts as a mediator in cultural communication between our countries. Does the digitalization process threaten this function?
Heike Uhlig: On the contrary, just this year, under the influence of the pandemic, our activity in the use of digital technologies has grown exponentially. This includes streaming films online, and conferences on education in digital format, and virtual tours of exhibitions. For example, I was deeply impressed by the way in which the production of “Emocracy” by the independent theater group Interrobang Berlin was presented to the public at the NONAME Center. Sun. Meyerhold. Artists from Berlin interacted with the Moscow audience through live video projection onto a screen in the hall. It was wonderful!
Self-isolation during the pandemic showed how important mutual contacts are for us and how vulnerable our world is.
Digital formats make it possible to quickly and directly connect people from different places to each other, and we use this in our work both in such a large country as Russia and on an international scale. We are delighted to celebrate our growing number of social media followers. In addition, through our website and our partners, we offer detailed information and discourses on a wide range of socially significant topics. But, as I said, none of this can replace face-to-face communication on the sidelines of a conference, nightly conversations during cultural trips or long creative business trips.
In official statements on the occasion of the opening of the Year of Germany in Russia often heard the word “dialogue”. What are your expectations from such a dialogue in 2021?
Heike Uhlig: I really hope that many of the restrictions due to the virus will soon become a thing of the past and we will meet again – in the truest sense of the word. Self-isolation during the pandemic has clearly shown how important mutual contacts are for us as social individuals and how vulnerable our world is.
Dialogue, conversation gives me the opportunity to understand another, and this implies the need to listen, ask, exchange opinions and arguments, strive to understand different points of view and recognize their right to exist. Argue without insulting each other. Prevent social media from becoming an arena of hate, mobbing and fake news.
It would be great if we could strengthen our commitment to constructive sharing, find answers to the question: “How do we want to live in the future?” and understand how to implement them. Look into the future without consuming the past.
For two years now you have been the head of the Goethe Institute in Moscow, but you have worked here before, in the zero years. Could you share your impressions of our country after your return? What has changed here?
Heike Uhlig: These will be mainly impressions of Moscow, because – again due to the pandemic – I have visited very few places, with the exception of St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. It has become much easier to navigate in Moscow. This primarily concerns the metro, but in general, in the city center, you can now find a detailed plan of each district at every step. It seems to me that people have become more attentive to each other.
The videos that show the rules of conduct in public transport may have been useful. Now you have to make sure that you are not run over by a cyclist or skateboarder, whereas before you were threatened by a meeting with a car at a pedestrian crossing. About twenty years ago, cyclists were a rarity in the cityscape of Moscow, not to mention bike paths … The shop assistants have become more welcoming, and you no longer annoy them, as before, but you feel like a customer.
And if you compare the atmosphere in society then and now? Have you felt any new tendencies in Russian cultural life, which, perhaps, affect the work of the Goethe-Institut?
Heike Uhlig: Creativity is always a definite reflection on the actual discourse, actual social and political problems. The theater, as well as cinema and performance, first of all respond to these questions. They have shown the growing role of interactive and participatory formats in recent years, as well as topics of social participation, be it inclusion, gender or self-organization. Creative practice is increasingly turning, in particular, to the problems of digitalization of life (for example, copyright and artificial intelligence), which reflect social processes and around which debates arise. It is equally important that both in Germany and in Russia there are many artists, whose work is at the intersection of art and science, who address the topic of the future and sustainable ecosystems.