In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Guardian, Dr Stukenberg discusses the Goethe-Institut’s key focus areas, its role in fostering Indo-German cultural relations, the challenges faced, and opportunities for growth.
Dr Marla Stukenberg, the Director of Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi and the Regional Director for South Asia, is at the helm of fostering cultural and educational ties in the region. With a robust vision of promoting diversity, understanding, and trust, the Goethe-Institut serves as a cultural bridge, enhancing exchange and creativity through close cooperation with local partners.
In an exclusive conversation with The Sunday Guardian, Dr Stukenberg delves into the key focus areas of the institute, the role it plays in nurturing Indo-German cultural relations, the challenges faced, and the myriad opportunities for strengthening these ties further. She also sheds light on how the Goethe-Institut ensures the quality and relevance of its programs in an ever-evolving global landscape.
Excerpts
Q. As the Director of Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi and Regional Director South Asia, what are your key areas of focus?
A. The Goethe-Institut is the globally active cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany and pursues a vision that stands for diversity, understanding and trust in exchange with the world. We are committed to this approach even under diverse conditions and, in many parts of the world, extremely difficult circumstances. The areas of focus for our work in South Asia, as well as the Goethe-Institut in other regions, are developed with the respective local background in mind through close cooperation with local partners in our guest countries. We see it as an essential principle not to appear in our host country with two-hands-full of projects, but to have proposals in one hand and to receive ideas from our local partners in the other, to jointly develop relevant projects together.
Currently, we pursue six major key areas of focus. Goethe-Institut facilitates cultural encounters and thereby promotes exchange and creativity. We promote the German language, information about Germany, and the international exchange of knowledge, which we enable by providing access to our multimedia libraries and streaming services for German films, among others. Moreover, we support people, who move to Germany to study or work, with their preparations to make their arrival in the country easier. As an organization, we pay great attention to sustainability; we initiate and promote artistic formats and projects that address ecological, social and economic concerns and base our own actions as an institution on the principles of sustainability. The Goethe-Institut is both, a German and a European cultural institute, so we cooperate with European partners, and we make Europe tangible in our host countries here in South Asia. And finally, we see ourselves as an innovative institute; this means that we are constantly developing as a learning organization, designing new models of cooperation, entering new partnerships, and promoting innovation and diversity..
Q. How do you perceive the role of Goethe-Institut in fostering cultural ties between India and Germany?
A. Relations between India and Germany in general are traditionally very close. This is especially true for the cultural relations between our two countries. Even the name of our institution in India reflects this: our institutes here are better known as Max Mueller Bhavan, named after the famous German Indologist Max Mueller, who was one of the first scholars to translate the Vedic scriptures into English and make them accessible in Europe.
The Goethe-Institut can now look back on over 60 years of presence in India during which we have facilitated international cultural exchange between Germany and India as well as within the region, promoted access to the German language and supported the unimpeded development of culture and science.
Among young people we are seeing a great deal of interest in studying in Germany and working as specialists or skilled workers in Germany. The Goethe-Institut is currently very active in language training and cultural preparation. Students from India presently comprise the largest foreign student group in Germany. This gives me hope that more young people from Germany will also be encouraged to spend a semester abroad in India through contacts with Indian students.
Q. What are some of the main challenges you face in your role, particularly in the context of promoting German language and culture in India?
A. We are in the very fortunate position in India that interest in cultural exchange with Germany and especially in learning German is extremely high. The high demand for German language classes and exams also makes it necessary to qualify more teachers to provide high-quality language learning to as many people as possible. This, right now, poses the biggest challenge – to find people interested in teaching and to qualify them in a timely manner to be able to expand course offerings. All teachers at Goethe-Institut go through an internal qualification program, the ‘Grünes Diplom.’ This program introduces aspiring teachers to our teaching methods and guides them toward their own high-quality teaching. At Goethe-Institut, we do believe in a very hands-on approach that combines theoretical knowledge with practice and reflection.
Q. What opportunities do you see for further strengthening cultural ties and educational partnerships between India and Germany?
A. Through diverse formats such as information trips, specialist exchanges between experts, youth exchange programs, and participation in international festivals, we enable communication and partnership between India and Germany.
We partner and cooperate with Indian cultural and educational institutions that we trust, and with whom the Goethe-Institut works actively to organize a varied spectrum of events – in the fields of art, cinema, language, theatre, dance and literature – supporting programs that are interdisciplinary and promote an exchange of ideas. What’s more, our partners in Germany invite Indian artists, students, scholars and researchers for participation in similar programs, thereby creating opportunities for collaboration and strengthening cross-cultural exchange.
We already offer a great deal here. At the same time, new formats are constantly emerging due to technological developments and the emergence of new thematic focuses such as sustainability. Our programs and offers are constantly evolving, always with the aim to foster learning between cultures. Opportunities arise from the interplay of two factors: we are a long-established, recognized institution with a decades-long history in India; at the same time, we are always dynamically keeping up with the times through our projects.
Q. How does the Goethe-Institut in New Delhi fit into the global hierarchy of the organization? In what ways do you collaborate with the larger Goethe-Institut network worldwide?
A. Worldwide, we provide information about the cultural and societal diversity of Germany and Europe. 151 Goethe-Institutes in 98 countries together with numerous partner institutions form the basis of our global network. The global network, in turn, is divided into various administrative regions. Together with my team in Delhi, I manage the nine institutes in the South Asia region; this includes the six institutes in India and one institute each in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We work very closely together in this regional network.
Every year, we develop the themes and formats for four to five major projects in which several institutes and partners from the various cities and partners as well as guests from Germany work together. Let me give you an example: We are in the process of preparing the project ‘Inclusive Contemporary Dance Residency and Cultural Exchange,’ a joint initiative of the Goethe-Institut and the German partner ‘tanzbar_bremen.’ We will organize two residencies in Delhi and Bangalore, bringing together differently abled dancers, choreographers, and practitioners from Germany and India. Later we will also show the results of these residencies in Kolkata and Chennai. With this initiative, we are promoting cultural exchange in the field of contemporary dance and at the same time researching how inclusion can be better realized in the cultural sector.
Q. How does the Goethe-Institut ensure quality in its programmes and offers?
A. As a cultural organization, we are committed to ideas and innovation. As the official cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, we ensure that our services maintain a high standard. The two imperatives are complementary asthey lead us to prioritize and invest in continuous development. By offering our staff exposure and learning opportunities,and constantlyevaluating our programs and services through feedback from our diverse audiences, especially language learners, we adapt and improve as neededto stay at the forefront of change. It is as the German proverb notes, ‘Werrastet, der rostet,’ which translates to ‘Who rests, rusts.’ Furthermore, as mentioned, we cooperate closely with local partners that we trust to ensure our cultural offers remain meaningful and relevant.