The Goethe Institut at 50: How good is excellent?

With 2011 marking the golden anniversary of the Goethe Institut, both Director Richard Kunsel and Ambassador Christian Ludwig Weber Lortsch express their gratitude to its ever-increasing patrons and friends. Both gentlemen likewise mention Rizal as a link between Germany and the Philippines, our national hero having studied in Heidelberg  remember his poem “A las flores de Heidelberg”?  and published his Noli in Berlin.

In 1981, Director Gorrit Bretzler requested me to deliver the main address for Goethe Institut’s 20th anniversary. The following excerpts from my speech are on its unique program, which program has not only continued but also intensified through the succeeding years, thus implying both the Institut’s immensely enriching contribution to our country and its lively cultural exchange with it.

The Institut’s program, cultural in the broadest sense, remains unmatched for sheer range, scope, magnitude, depth and diversity. Experts lectured on cancer, aging, nuclear science, philosophy, architecture, sociology  specifically on the problems of the working class ­ micropaleontology (I couldn’t find this word in my Oxford dictionary), international law, book design, Oriental languages, the visual and graphic arts, music (classic, jazz, avant garde), theater, dance  in sum, lectures on every conceivable aspect of human endeavor. All these to disseminate knowledge derived from German experience, in fulfillment of the Institut’s aim to serve the host country and, in Goethe’s spirit, to contribute to universality, brotherhood, and the development of the total individual.

Further, world-renowned artists in music and modern dance came from Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart, etc. In an endless stream, while balletomanes had their fill of ballet films. Although I consistently evaluated the performing arts scene with interviews, essays and more than enough critiques for a book I could have entitled “How Good Is Excellent” it was not humanly possible for me to attend every workshop, seminar, conference, lecture, or symposium.

Through those 20 years, the Institut complemented German participation by sponsoring lectures by Filipino experts, exhibitions by our emerging painters, festivals of Philippine films, concerts jointly featuring Filipino and German artists. For instance, Oscar Yatco, who is now a professor in Hannover, conducted for soprano Margarits Shack. Through the Institut, such outstanding talents as Enrique Barcelo, Renato Lucas and later, Andion Fernandez, obtained scholarships in German conservatories. Today, Barcelo is PPO’s principal flutist. Lucas its principal cellist. Fernandez, a regular member of the Berlin Opera House.

Incidentally, when I gave a talk on Philippine-German relations in Tuebingen U. in the 1970s, I quickly discovered that Germany was the only Western country celebrating an Asian Cultural Week.

In 1981, the German embassy under Ambassador Wolfgang Eger converted Paco Cemetery, where Rizal was originally interred, into Paco Park. Since then, one month of every year is devoted to free concerts featuring Filipino artists interpreting German and Filipino composers. How Rizal, our first Germanophile and fervid lover of the arts, would have enjoyed listening to them!

Braving pollution and congested traffic, music lovers motoring to Las Piñas for the yearly Bamboo Organ Festival, may have totally forgotten that, with the Institut’s intervention, the bamboo organ underwent massive repairs in Bonn in 1973, and on its return in 1975, Wolfgang Ohms, organist of the Trier Cathedral, gave the first concert in St. Joseph’s Church, assisted by the Las Piñas Boys’ Choir and our Philharmonic Orchestra. German virtuosos continue to figure prominently in the organ festivals.

To nobody’s surprise, and certainly not to mine, the Institut, since its inauguration in 1961 and thereafter, has maintained the incredible momentum, pace, vitality, range and scope of its program. During its celebration of Goethe’s 250th birth anniversary, and indeed in any year chosen at random, each month is a virtual festival of art and culture in its widest latitude, with the major performing arts receiving my usual critical assessment.

Each director, I venture to say, has implemented the Institut’s program with awesome teutonic efficiency and thoroughness. How the Institut has enriched our lives, enlarged our vision and lifted our spirit!