From April 18^th to 26^th Berlin hosted the “Foreign Cultural Policy Days” [Tage der auswärtigen Kulturpolitik] organised by the German Federal Foreign Office together with its main partners in the field of international cultural cooperation: the Goethe Institute, the ifa (Institute for foreign cultural relations), the academic exchange service DAAD and the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

During the conference Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced additional investment in cultural policies, especially for the creation of “science houses” in Moscow, New Delhi and New York to develop the German cultural network abroad. The Ministry also supports the project of German director Christoph Schlingensief to mount a festival theatre in Africa. Furthermore preparations are taking place for the construction of a German-Turkish University in Istanbul.

Since Steinmeier’s taking office the Ministry’s cultural funds have increased by 30%. The money was used in particular to reorganize the Goethe Institute thus enabled to keep its institutes abroad and even open up ten new ones. Another major project was promoting German as a foreign language, now provided at 1200 schools all over the world. Also the “Kulturweit” programme was launched, allowing young Germans to complete a volunteering service in the cultural sector abroad.

In 2008 the Federal Foreign Office’s cultural budget amounted to 658 million Euros. A concrete sum for the coming years was not given yet. In the future a major focus will be put on cultural cooperation with Russia, China and India.

Sources : Lausitzer Rundschau, 23.4.2009 / Tagesspiegel, 25.4.2009