The Latest at Goethe

The Board of Trustees of the Goethe-Institut has elected the next secretary-general. On 1 March 2012, Johannes Ebert will succeed Hans-Georg Knopp in this office. The 48-year old is presently the director of the Goethe-Institut in Moscow.

Ebert was a unanimous choice. The Board of Trustees of the Goethe-Institut elected “home-grown” Ebert who has worked for the institute for the past twenty years after majoring in Islamic Studies and Political Science. Cairo, Kiev, Munich and Riga were some of the stops along his career pathway at Germany’s cultural institute. Johannes Ebert was a chief contributor to a large number of groundbreaking projects and publications in international cultural and educational exchange. He was also a decisive driving force in the founding of the new Goethe-Instituts in Abu Dhabi and Novosibirsk. Most recently, a major educational campaign was initiated under his aegis to promote the German language in Russia.

Klaus-Dieter-Lehmann, President of the Goethe-Institut, is very satisfied with the election of Ebert. “With more than fifteen years of work experience overseas and his sound knowledge of Germany’s cultural and educational landscape, he possesses the decisive expertise and the organizational skill to further develop the Goethe-Institut on its successful journey.” Ebert is a “pragmatic visionary” and will tangibly make use of his scope of creativity to benefit the cultural and educational mission of the Goethe-Institut.

Hans-Georg Knopp, previously the director of the House of World Cultures in Berlin, has steered the affairs of the Goethe-Institut since 2005. He takes stock: “We fundamentally reformed the Goethe-Institut in recent years. The fact that it is on steady footing in spite of the financially difficult times is due to a large part to the restructuring.” He is happy to be able to hand over such a well-organized institute to his successor and wishes him “the necessary deftness at all times and the confident composure that I so admire in him.”

Ebert himself reacted pleased and thankful for the election. “In coming years we will have to mainly focus on helping to shape the ever more rapid changes in a globalized world and actively respond to new challenges,” says the future secretary-general. “Culture and education, the two central fields of the Goethe-Institut’s work, will play a continuing growing role in international dialogue.”

Ebert’s election completes the new team of the Executive Committee. Bruno Gross began his office as managing director on 1 March 2011. Prior to that he was the chancellor of the Munich University of Applied Sciences.