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Listen to the latest tracks from Germany's music scene. This month featuring Ebow, Nichtseattle and many others!

Verschwende deine Jugend
Germany, 2003, 97 min.
Director: Benjamin Quabeck
Genre: Comedy, Music Film
In German with English subtitles

Munich, 1980s: By day, Harry is a bank apprentice. By night, he manages the band Apollo Schwabing, hoping to find his foothold in the music scene. His chance finally comes when he books the band in a concert headlined by the legendary electropunk band D.A.F., but those hopes are dashed at the last minute. Harry will have to take any measures he can to ensure that the show goes on, from selling his beloved record collection, to pilfering guitars, and eventually to committing even riskier crimes…

Signing up is easy—just go to MeinGoethe.de! To watch our free movies, simply log in with your existing MeinGoethe.de account or sign up for free—in the top right corner of the movie portal page. And then? Snuggle up on the couch, press play, and... let the movie begin!

Zweitland
Germany, Austria, Italy, 2025, 113 min.
Director: Michael Kofler
With : Thomas Prenn, Aenne Schwarz, Laurence Rupp, Francesco Acquaroli and Andrea Fuorto

Canadian Premiere

South Tyrol, 1961. The northern Italian region with a German-speaking minority is shaken by a series of separatist bomb attacks. Free spirit Paul wants to escape the narrowness and lack of prospects of his little village and study painting in Munich. 

The film screening will be followed by a discussion with director Michael Kofler, moderated by André Lavoie.

As part of Akousma festival

Felix Deufel is a sound artist and sound ecologist whose work focuses on spatial sound, spatial hearing, and the relationship between soundscapes, society, and the environment.

Das deutsche Kettensägenmassaker
Germany, 1990, 60 min.
Director: Christoph Schlingensief

Christoph Schlingensief had shot his radical comment to German reunification within two weeks, shortly after 3rd October 1990. His grotesque breakthrough film propelled him into public consciousness as one of Germany’s most unconventional, daring and refreshing filmmakers. Shot in gloriously grainy 16mm in a stunning industrial area in Mülheim an der Ruhr, it mixes trash horror aesthetics – production design by Uli Hanisch – with Schlingensief’s experimental roots. A gory, shrieking and abrasively satirical horror movie full of political humor, exposing the free market as the meat market that it is, The German Chainsaw Massacre rightfully deserves its status as an enduring cult film.

Content Note: This film contains explicit depictions of violence, gore, and splatter. Its deliberately exaggerated style serves as a satirical commentary on German reunification.

As part of the La mèche courte festival | Grades 2 through 6

In a bizarre, very angular world, all in black and white, two humanoid creatures make a dramatic appearance, disrupting the established order. With caution and clumsiness, they strive to understand the laws of this kaleidoscopic environment, filled with strange sounds and mysterious boxes. The possible appearance of tentacles is a cause for concern! Or perhaps not?

Our German book club continues this fall. In conjunction with our film programming, which will be focusing on the 1990s, we’ve chosen a novel from the same decade,

“Helden wie wir” by Thomas Brussig

and invite you to join us for a discussion in German.

Hosted by Sebastian Döderlein

This issue of GEGENÜBER presents punk not as a closed chapter in pop history, but as a source of cultural energy that feels surprisingly at home in the present: unruly, creative, sometimes irritating, sometimes inspiring, and still difficult to tame. Punk Is Not Dead. It's 50!

By 1976, the once underground punk movement had exploded across the world, bringing with it a bold new style, an anti-establishment ethos, and a powerful do-it-yourself means of political and personal expression. In celebration of fifty years of punk, we are pleased to present in cooperation with the German Film Office Alle Gegen Alles: Punk@50, a series streaming free on Goethe on Demand through December 31.

Our translation funding programme supports the publication of books by German authors in another language.

Eine Auswahl von Werken der österreichischen Schriftstellerin Ingeborg Bachmann, die Sie in unserer digitale Bibliothek entdecken können.

Follow the link below to view all events in our calendar.

The Onleihe is Goethe-Institut’s digital library (eLibrary). More than 23,000 German language eBooks, audio books, movies, materials for German language learners, magazines and newspapers are available for downloading from the Onleihe. 

The rules of the language, the origin of new vocabulary and the latest, most important changes in the use of the language - these and other exciting topics are the focus of our column about the German language.