Goethe Institute fosters cultural interaction

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post

When considering a venue for arts and cultural events in Jakarta, the Goethe Institut should not be overlooked. Conveniently located in the Menteng area in Central Jakarta, the German cultural center boasts one of the most technologically advanced auditoriums in the city.

Goethe Institut Jakarta's auditorium -- the GoetheHaus -- boasts the capacity to seat 301 people, and with its two 16-millimeter projectors and five-by-six-meter screen, it is no wonder that it annually hosts the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest).

Opened in 2002, the GoetheHaus is ideal for chamber music concerts, choirs, theater and dance performances, film screenings, as well as lectures and seminars. Photography, graphic and poster exhibitions can also be held in the GoetheHaus's gallery.

"It's been quite a privilege to have this kind of auditorium here in Jakarta," Goethe Institut Jakarta's director Peter J. Bumke told The Jakarta Post in an interview recently. He explained that since most Goethe Instituts were located in densely populated cities, a venue of this scale was rare.

In Jakarta, the Goethe Institut is housed on Jl. Sam Ratulangi in the former Deutsche Internationale Schule (DIS), which moved to Bumi Serpong Damai in Tangerang.

Bumke -- who is also regional director for Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand -- said that the GoetheHaus had since acted as a meeting place for artists from Germany and Indonesia to interact, "(which) underpin our understanding of how cultural exchanges should work, not as showcasing but interaction," he explained.

Interaction between cultures, Germany and Indonesia in particular, is exactly what the Goethe Institut is all about.

First established in the country in 1963 to promote German language and culture, Goethe Institut operates under an umbrella agreement with Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the other hand, the Institut is also given free reign in coordinating its own affairs, Bumke said.

"The Germans never thought it wise to have a cultural institution too closely linked with the government. We are simply an independent association and we are in contact with the government, but we run cultural policies according to our own standards," he explained.

Goethe Institut's activities generally fall into three areas -- language classes, cultural programs and library information services -- of which German language classes are an important factor.

"Jakarta has always been the largest Goethe Institut in the region because of the size of its language department," Bumke said.

Since the 1950s, Indonesian students have looked to Germany for education, especially in the field of technology, engineering and architecture and, to date, there are at least 18,000 Indonesians who have studied in Germany.

The success stories of these early German alumni became the reason for more and more Indonesians wanting to study there. Bumke said that there are about 800 students currently studying at Goethe Institut Jakarta, with about 70 percent wanting to take up studies in Germany.

Besides the relatively cheap costs -- education in Germany is heavily subsidized by the government -- another draw for Indonesian students is that now more German universities are offering courses in English.

"So what we do now here is that we increasingly offer German courses for Indonesian students who might follow a course in Germany in English, but who would still need some German to make their way around," Bumke said.

Goethe Institut Jakarta also holds teacher's training courses and seminars for some 700 teachers of German at high school level and 160 university lecturers of German in Indonesia.

While academic cooperation and government scholarships are organized by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Goethe Institut also provides two scholarships a year for students who have studied German for at least two years and those who are cultural workers, to learn the language in Germany for two months.

Another function of Goethe Institut is the library information services. The Goethe Institut library houses a collection of more than 8,000 books, video and DVDs and music CDs related to Germany and German culture.

By providing subsidies to local publishers, Goethe Institut's translation program aims to make important academic writing, high-quality fiction, children's and youth literature, and selected non-fiction works available to a non-German speaking readership.

To date Goethe Institut has translated Momo, a popular children's story by German author Michael Ende, together with Gramedia Pustaka Utama; and Enlightenment icon Immanuel Kant's Zum ewigen Frieden: ein philosophischer Entwurf (Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch) with Mizan.

"We also organize translator workshops once or twice a year, because translating is a craft that has to be learned," Bumke said.