Quick access:
Go directly to content (Alt 1)Go directly to second-level navigation (Alt 3)Go directly to first-level navigation (Alt 2)
Europe at NightNASA Visible Earth/public domain

Project “Freiraum”
 Thinking across Europe

Chain reaction: intellectuals and persons from civil society ask each other questions, thereby facilitating a transnational exchange in essays that addresses Europe-wide challenges.

Videos: Architecture in the 21st Century

Frank Barkow & Regine Leibinger: Blautopf © ARCHlab

Ditzingen, Germany
 “All that Space continues”

“First and foremost, people should eat well and the atmosphere should be right” – the architectural practice Barkow Leibinger realized a canteen for a mechanical engineering company near Stuttgart.

MADA s.p.a.m.: Ningbo Y-Town © ARCHlab

Ningbo, China
 “A Space Framework”

The architectural practice MADA s.p.a.m. designs supercities in China – and is faced with the challenge of transferring these huge areas to the concrete individual life.

Shigeru Ban: Nomadic Museum© ARCHlab

New York, USA
 “My design is always the solution for a problem”

With his Nomadic Museum, architect Shigeru Ban has created a building that can be erected anywhere in the world. Not even a lot of material has to be transported for this.

Series: ARCHlab

Headphones on a pianoAntonio Gravante / Colourbox.de

News from the classical music scene
 Klassikcast in April

Once a month, we are presenting news from the German classical music scene. In the new issue Sylvia Schreiber presents new, unusual recordings with violin, cello and piano.

Most popular articles

Stefan Gieren and his family moved to the countryPhoto (detail): © Tonio Postel

City and country life
 Town mouse or country mouse?

Everyone has their own idea of the best place to live. Goethe.de/kultur asked four people why they have chosen to live in the countryside or in the city. [more …]

Acrobatic skills are sometimes required to avoid moving traffic. Photo: Jörn Blind © Goethe-Institut

Cycling in Berlin
 Between lifestyle and life-threatening

Cycling – for many Berliners, that means a lifestyle choice, the ideal form of transport and a steadfast belief that even 200 years after its invention, the future belongs to the bicycle. [more …]

Osmotic Studios Founder-members | Michael Kluge, Melanie Taylor und Daniel Marx (fltr) Photo: Jan Bojaryn

German Indie Games
 Observing like Orwell

Hamburg’s gamer scene is simmering, and with her Studio Osmotic Mel Taylor provides an important ingredient. The game "Orwell" has garnered awards in Germany and is also gaining fans internationally. [more …]

Artificial IntelligencePhoto (detail): © Adobe

Artificial Intelligence
 Master or Minion?

Will Artificial Intelligence rule humanity at some point? – On the insurmountable distinctions between humans and machines. An essay by Peter Glaser. [more …]

Goethe worldwide

Parks© William Jameson

Parks
 Green Havens

What do we use parks in our cities for? What significance do parks have for people? The Goethe-Institut USA travelled with a video team through parks in Germany and the USA and captured impressions of the green oases.

Hybrid Identities Photo: Gema Segura | CC BY–SA 2.0 ES

Hybrid Identities
 Pluralism and Belonging

What places do we identify with and why? What is our relationship to the place where we live, where we or our parents were born? In 12 photo portraits, the Goethe-Institut Spain examines the question of identity in plural societies.

Muslims in Germany© M. Miller

Muslims in Germany
 Integration and Daily Life

How do Muslims in Germany practice their religion? How do they interact with their social environment? What wishes, joys, worries and fears do they have? Through essays, interviews and photo stories, the Goethe-Institut Indonesia gives an insight into the life of German Muslims.

Dance and Theatre

„Caligula“ by Albert Camus, Berliner Ensemble© Julian Roeder

The Theater Season 2017/2018
 What comes after the flight?

The programmes of the 2017/2018 season are still defined by the theme complex “Migrant Life in Germany”. However, the theatres are also reacting strongly to the increasing number of autocrats who are transforming democratic state structures into presidential dictatorships. [more …]

Esther Slevogt and Christian Rakow© Thomas Aurin

Ten years of nachtkritik.de
 Critiques and debates

Read a review of a premiere performed the night before at your breakfast table – that has been possible for a whole decade now on nachtkritik.de. To mark this anniversary, we spoke to two critics who wrote for nachtkritik in its early days: founding member Esther Slevogt and new co-editor-in-chief Christian Rakow. [more …]

Paula Rosolen: “Aerobics”Paula Rosolen: “Aerobics”

Dance, Migration, Cultural Exchange
 Movement

Dance is movement – and movement over borders also shapes dance. For about 300 years now, travel and migration have had a strong influence on an increasingly globalised dance scene. Our portrait series shows: cultural exchange across and beyond all borders and limitations gives dancers impulses for creative work and enlivens their art.

For more articles

Film

On the set of “The Young Karl Marx” by Raoul PeckPhoto (detail): © picture alliance / Jens Trenkler / dpa

Marxism on Film
 Marxist ideas live on in film

Over the past 120 years, Marxist ideas have undergone frequent revivals on the silver screen. [more …]

Attractive: working with rope systems and firePhoto (detail): Melanie Benna

A Stunt Woman in Germany
 “Bruises are par for the course.”

Falling down, lowering yourself on a rope from a great height or staging a moped accident – for Melanie Benna, this is all part of her everyday working life. The native Berliner works as a stunt woman. How does she assert herself in this male domain? [more …]

Just as in a traditional “Western” plot: Construction worker Meinhard is riding a horse.© 2017 Komplizen Film, Chouchkov Brothers, coop99, KNM

“Western” Movie
 Encountering the Other

How do we interact with strangers and engage with foreign countries? The film “Western” tells the story of German construction workers sent to build a hydroelectric power station in Bulgaria, where their encounters with local villagers do not, to put it mildly, always go smoothly. [more …]

For more articles

Literature

Q-R-T. Flummi allein zuhaus (i.e. Q-R-T. Super Ball alone at home)Photo (detail): © Ferdinand Lutz / Reprodukt

Comics for kids and teens
 Dog reporter meets dinosaurs

Whether it is passing on knowledge or encouraging creativity and imagination, comics for kids and teens have become truly high-quality children’s and young adult literature.  [more …]

Leo Lander, the protagonist from Matthias Gnehm’s comic “Die kopierte Stadt” (The Copied City).Photo (detail): © Matthias Gnehm / Edition Hochparterre

Matthias Gnehm
 The affinity between architecture and comics

German-speaking Swiss Matthias Gnehm is a rarity among comic authors: the artist and screenwriter works as a freelance architect and incorporates his professional experience into his comics. [more …]

Reinhard Kleist: Nick Cave And The Bad SeedsPhoto (detail): © Reinhard Kleist, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Carlsen Verlag GmbH, Hamburg 2017

Reinhard Kleist
 Politics and pop culture

Berliner-by-choice Reinhard Kleist is one of Germany’s hardest working and most successful comic artists and illustrators. His graphic novels portray exceptional figures from politics, sports and pop culture – and have won numerous prizes. [more …]

For more articles

Music

The Frankfurt Musikmesse is an important meeting point for instrument makers worldwidePhoto: Petra Wenzel © Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH

Instrument Making
 Technology, art and species protection

Some bank on software, others on local woods. The current range of instrument making in Germany is great, but so too is the international competition. [more …]

Trikont boss Achim BergmannPhoto (detail): © Sebastian Weidenbach/Trikont/dpa

The Trikont label turns 50
 Bavarian for Rebellion

As news of Che Guevara’s death spread around the world in 1967, an independent label declared a cultural revolution in Bavaria. 2017 marks the 50th birthday of the Trikont record company, still a subversive thorn in the establishment’s side today. [more …]

A spontaneous choir directed by Oliver Gies during the choir meeting chor.com Photo © Reiner Engel / chor.com

Young Choirs
 Sing Along instead of Performing

Traditional German male choirs look pretty old in the twenty-first century. Sing-along formats, however, such as “pack singing” are booming. In any case, Germans’ desire to sing remains unbroken. [more …]

For more articles

Additional themes

Fassade, modernes Gebäude© colourbox.com


Architecture

BibliothekenFoto (Ausschnitt): © SLUB Dresden/Henrik Ahlers - CC BY-SA 4.0


Libraries

Glas vergrößert © colourbox.com


Visual Arts

Bildung und Wissen© Fotolia/quickshooting


Education and Knowledge

Krawatten in einem Schaufenster© colourbox.com


Design and Fashion

Gesellschaft und ZeitgeschehenFoto: © Shutterstock


Society and Current Affairs

Growing up with the InternetPhoto (detail): © maria_savenko - Fotolia.com


Media

Modernes LebenFoto (Ausschnitt): © EpicStockMedia/fotolia.com


Modern Life

Top