Interview: Gabriele Kreuter-Lenz, Goethe-Institut

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Towards the end of my interview with Gabriele Kreuter-Lenz, the director of the Barcelona Goethe-Institut, I think I made up a new word. Apparently, “Deustchephile” does not exist. While you can be a lover of all things English or French, there isn’t a word for those of us who have a soft spot for Berlin, Bavaria, bratwurst and beer. These things, of course, do little to actually explore what Germany is all about: it’s a country whose history of romanticism, music, philosophy, engineering, efficiency and a whole lot else besides has made it one of the most important modern European powers and a beacon of progressive culture worldwide.

Gabriele laughs when I bring this up with her as we walk out of the crisp, clean, luminescent green building where the Barcelona section of the Goethe-Institut is located (it’s the color of their iconic away football kit), and Gabriele is sprightly and adorned in bright emerald attire to match.

“The Goethe-Institut is the German cultural institute in the world,” she tells me as we sip on a coffee in her office thirty minuets earlier. “We have about 160 institutes in more than 90 countries, and our slogan is ‘Sprache, Kultur, Deutschland,’ which means ‘Language, Culture, Germany.’ And this describes very well what we are doing.”

It does indeed. The Goethe-Institut has a dual function: it is the representative of both German culture and language throughout the world, akin to the British Council or Spain’s Instituto Cervantes. The German language courses are how many people come into contact with the institute, and there is a fleet of teachers on hand for any one brave enough to take on a language which includes words like Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften (which means “insurance companies providing legal protection”). However, it is the cultural side that I’m interested in, as its diverse projects showcase Germany’s vibrant culture and link it with those of the rest of the world.

“[Our goal] is not to provide German culture in another country,” Gabriele continues, “what we want to do is to work with people from the country [we are in], who work in the cultural sector—maybe in theatres or in music—and create projects together. So we always have a mix with people from the country and people from Germany, cultural people who work together and who organize something together.”

That link with German culture goes to the core of the Goethe-Institut. It’s not just to disseminate German culture alone, it’s to work with global artists, creators and institutions to explore the intersections between German culture and local ones, too. As Gabriele points out, “We try to put the two mentalities together.”

When I think of German culture, I tend to go back to the 19th century—to Wagner and Brahms, Nietzsche, Hegel and, of course, Goethe—however, this is something that the Goethe-Institut actually wants to get away from. “We want to be contemporary,” Gabriele says when I start boring her with my love for Wagner (a sentiment she does not share.) “This is our main focus. We think that the classical things are already installed and there are institutions for them, so it is not our role to show it. It is much more important for us to show the now, what is happening now and in the future in Germany and here in Spain, rather than the past.”

The institute does this by looking at contemporary, topical themes with its cultural projects. “We have many different focuses, one of which is Europe. We are very pro-European. Another [theme] is the environment, which is a problem all over the world, and this is a theme that we are going to work more in … how people are reacting to this problem that we all live at the moment.”

“Another thing which is interesting for us,” Gabriele continues, “is digitalization. Things like artificial intelligence … We are going to think about how new ideas are coming and being created. How technologies are changing things, but also the technologies of the people: do they still read newspapers or do they inform themselves by social media only? This is another interesting point in learning a language: how do you learn English, French or Spanish? Do you learn it in a class or do you learn it on a phone?”

The rise of digitalization affects all our lives, and is now seeping into the art world, too. AR and VR art is being explored by a new wave of artists across the globe who are molding reality to their creative whims using fascinating technology. This was given pride of place at last year’s Sonar+D (and no doubt will be this year too), and artistic spaces like Hangar in Poblenou are championing it as well.

The Goethe-Institut does various exchanges with artists who work in this sector, giving them the opportunity to work or study in Germany and vice versa. “We also give residences to artists, to organize an intercambio, a cultural exchange between them. So for instance, with Baden-Württemberg, which is a region in Germany, and here Catalunya, we have a cultural exchange of artists so that some Germans can live here for a while, and some Catalan artists can live in Germany for a while, and they produce something, an artistic work over that time.”

That the Goethe-Institut manages to do this without being directly a part of the German government is another fascinating element of its existence. While the British Council, Institut Français and the Instituto Cervantes are wings of their respective national governments, the Goethe-Institut stands apart from the Bundestag, even if it does receive some funding from it, alongside private organizations. This allows the institute to work in places and discuss topics that other national culture institutes cannot, given they are considered part of a foreign state.

“We try to be in places … where the Goethe-Institut can go in and speak frankly.” Gabriele tells me. “We are not watched by authorities because it’s a cultural center, and it is not part of the embassy like all the others. The Institut Français, the British Council, the Instituto Cervantes: all of these are part of governments, but not the Goethe-Institut. This happened because the Goethe-Institut was founded after the Second World War and Germany said, ‘well, it should be a cultural institute which is not part of the government, because of our past.’ We are very happy about that and very proud. And I know that the British are always [envious], and the Italian and all the other cultural institutes, they always look at us and they say ‘wow, you are the only cultural institute [who is not a part of a government].’”

As such, the projects that the Goethe-Institut undertakes can be slightly more daring, slightly more political. One project soon to be shown here in Barcelona touches on this exactly, a response to how the European project seems to be disintegrating before our very eyes, with new walls and barriers being constructed from the UK to Italy and Hungary.

“This year Germany will be the director of the EU … so we are organizing a big event which is called The Wall Disappears. This might also be interesting for the Catalan people here, because they are in the opposite way at the moment. We will try to get some sentences from important people from Europe about Europe, and then we translate the sentence into Catalan, Castellano, German and English. We will put these on wooden pieces, and we put these wooden pieces in between two walls of acrylic, and people will come and they will take one of these wooden pieces and after a while the wall will disappear.” As other walls get put up, it makes sense that it should be a German institute showing how it should be taken apart—they know a thing or two about the benefits of tearing them down.

Gabriele told me about a number of other really interesting projects that the Goethe-Institut is undertaking here in Barcelona at the moment, including: a film cycle called “Frauenfilm,” which celebrates female made (rather than simply led) German cinema; an exhibition about video games at the CCCB; a theatre piece by the acclaimed German director Susanne Kennedy; and a young German theatre group bringing some contemporary stage work to Sala Beckett.

However, one of the most interesting projects it has undertaken in recent years moves beyond countries with natural links like Germany and Spain, bringing cities who would normally have nothing to do with each other together, allowing them to learn from one another and find innovative solutions to each of their problems.

“We also had a very big project that we created two years ago, a project which is called Freiraum,” she remembers from when she was the head of the Goethe-Institut in Rome. “For this we needed two partners in 42 countries, not only in Europe, and they had to work together to solve each other’s problems. In Rome we were put together with Thessaloniki. At that point we were working together with an anti-mafia organization, and these two organizations had to create a question [about themselves] for the other organization, to see if they can find a solution … But they could answer it as a theatre work, an exhibition, a painting, graffiti, dialogue—they could invent new ways in how to produce it … What does Thessaloniki have to do with the anti-mafia in Rome? To bring them together and find solutions, this was a very interesting project.”

National cultural organizations like the Goethe-Institut have the scope to challenge big questions like this, to work across borders in ways that smaller local organizations simply cannot. It’s that scope and that ability to look into the future rather than the past that makes it so compelling, and at the end of the day, so very powerful.

You can find out more at the Goethe-Institut’s website at goethe.de or follow on Twitter: @GIBarcelona, or Facebook: @GoetheInstitutBarcelona.

Harry Stott is a regular contributor to the Barcelona Metropolitan covering Brexit, local political and social issues as well as the music scene. He recently received a B.A. in music from the University of Leeds, and now writes and produces radio content for a number of organizations in Barcelona and beyond. You can read more of Harry's articles here.