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Lehmann New President of the Goethe-Institut

Limbach and Klaus-Dieter Lehmann : © picture-alliance/dpa

On 31 March Klaus-Dieter Lehmann took over from Jutta Limbach as President of the Goethe-Institut. It was the end of an era: for six years Jutta Limbach had been at the helm of Germany's leading organization in the cultural relations and education field. Under her leadership a number of important reforms were introduced. The Institut is now opening new branches and its funding, too, has increased.

Whether in Singapore or Zimbabwe, Israel or Italy, the Goethe-Institut is on the spot wherever people want to know more about Germany's language or culture. At over 130 venues in more than 70 different countries the Institut performs its three-fold mission to promote interest in the German language, communicate all aspects of life in Germany and enhance cooperation with host-country artists and writers.

Successful reforms
Federal Foreign Minister Steinmeier sees cultural relations and education as one of Germany's foreign policy priorities. "Especially in a world with new centres of power", he points out, "we have to ensure that our own culture is still visible and understood. And in such a world we have to make an effort to fully comprehend any grounds for misunderstanding, scepticism and rejection."

For the past six years the work of the Goethe-Institut was steered by Jutta Limbach. Born in Berlin in 1934, she trained as a lawyer and in 1972 was appointed professor at the Freie Universität Berlin. From 1989 to 1994 she served as Land Berlin's justice minister and from 1994 to 2002 as President of the Constitutional Court. In 2002 she became President of the Goethe-Institut.

In recent years the cooperation between the Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut has been remarkably successful. Thanks to a joint reform programme launched after successive rounds of savings and cutbacks from the mid-nineties onwards, the Institut now has a bright future. Two new branches in Angola and Tanzania are to open shortly and others are due to follow.Increased funding has put the Institut's activities onto a secure footing.

Handing Over: Limbach, Lehmann and Steinmeier at the handing over ceremony in Munich © picture-alliance/dpa

A modern and future-oriented approach
But we cannot rest on our laurels.In Minister Steinmeier's view what applies to Germany itself also applies to our cultural relations. "Our international standing is good, but if we are to make our contribution also in the cultural field, we have to gear both our policies and our instruments to the needs of the twenty-first century." This is the challenge awaiting Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, one of Germany's most distinguished cultural managers.

Born in Wroclaw in 1940, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann studied physics and mathematics as well as library science.In 1978 he was appointed Director of the University Library in Frankfurt/Main and in 1988 Director-General of the Deutsche Bibliothek also based in the city. In 1999 he became President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and in 2002 Vice-President of the Goethe-Institut.

Source: Federal Foreign Office

April 2, 2008

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