The Latest at Goethe

Hardly any country has as many neighbours as Germany. But what does nearness between neighbours actually mean? How near are the European nations today? And is nearness perhaps merely an illusion? The Goethe-Institut now seeks answers to these questions in a special forum.

People live together, people are neighbours. Hardly anyone can evade this. And yet – as the subject of scientific research the neighbour still leads a shadowy existence. A sociological or ethnological theory of neighbourhood? Non-existent! Reason enough, thought Carola Dürr and Christoph Bartmann, to take a closer look at the topic, and so they initiated the forum “Illusion of Nearness” for the Goethe-Institut.

A characteristic trait of the Goethe-Institut is – quasi by definition – “to roam farther and farther”. And this although the old proverb, that is even based on a quotation by Goethe himself, has instilled in us that we should “see the good that lies so near”.

Yet the Goethe-Institut can always break the mould, as the public forum initiated by Bartmann and Dürr now shows: from 27. to 29. October it is to host “Future Prospects for the European Neighbourhood” in the former Berlin airport Tempelhof.

It will, of course, also become evident that it is not always only the good that lies so near. “The neighbour, that’s for sure, is not necessarily a friendly companion,” says Bartmann, head of the Goethe-Institut’s Department of Culture and Information. “He can also become a source of vexation and mistrust for us.” Or as Goethe’s friend Schiller once put it more simply: “The most pious man may not live in peace if he does not please his wicked neighbour.”

The nearness to our neighbour is often one that we have not chosen ourselves. It forces us to position ourselves to the neighbour: forthcoming, reserved, curious or expectant – but seldom indifferent and usually seeking demarcation. “The formation of a national identity is inspired by the feeling that we are not like the neighbour,” says Bartmann. “But with this negation the neighbour is already in us.”

Europe as a sphere of competence

The nearness to the neighbour, according to Bartmann and Dürr, could be a chance as well as a curse. Carola Dürr, who is a curator and cultural scientist in Berlin, reminds us, for example, that almost every Polish family has lost members due to the Germans. “The German is deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of the Poles. Without these neighbours Polish identity would be different today.”

Poland and France, Germany’s two biggest neighbours, are the exemplary focal points of the conference. In over a dozen events we will be casting a glance over the neighbour’s fence, but also into our own garden. There will be discussions about a bilateral remembrance culture or about Poland’s reorientation towards its eastern neighbours. A further topic will showcase the city as a trans-national sphere: what is the relationship between integration and ‘good neighbourhood’? The politicians Günter Verheugen and Ruprecht Polenz discuss the question of where Europe ends, the Hungarian writer Pete Esterházy reads from his Central-European travelogue “Down the Danube” and the political scientist and philosopher Herfried Münkler explains why it may occasionally be better to settle for partnership rather than strive for friendship. The final speech will be held by the Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

And so what actually inspired the Goethe-Institut not to “roam farther and farther” this time, but to look into the neighbour’s garden? “For the Goethe-Institut Europe is and will remain a sphere of competence,” is the answer of Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Institute. “We are a part of it, we contribute to it and regard it as our creative basis also for our activities throughout the world.”

-db-