Goethe-Institute

Nothing symbolises Schwäbisch Hall cosmopolitanism better than the activities of the Goethe-Institute. It was founded in 1965 and is by now the oldest in Germany. Thus, in August 2005, Institut and city were able to celebrate the 40th aniversary together with the President of the Goethe-Institute, Prof. Dr. Jutta Limbach. Annually up to 2000 young people from around the globe come to Hall, to learn German in intensive courses, to experience cultures - and to enjoy themselves.
Many even stay for half a year or longer, to pick up the language from scratch, in order to gain entry to universities, or to satisfy preconditions for a research exchange, or to obtain further professional qualification.
Often times, the students receive family visitors while they are staying in the city. This means up to about 600 overnight acomodations for the hotels in the city, not to mention the turnover from course attendees and visitors, for the local businesses.

Apart from the classical four week courses, the Goethe-Institute Schwäbisch Hall offers various special courses such as a Adolescent Summer Course in the Schlossinternat (Castle Boarding School) Michelbach, courses for school classes and groups of students, for seniors and for special focus groups, such as District Administrators from Turkey ? the latter project in colaboration with the Goethe-Institut in Ankara and the Turkish Interior Ministry. Part of the new profile of the Institute are courses with integrated vocational practical training, vocational-oriented individual and company-baser courses and further qualification seminars for foreign German teachers. Courses for seniors are attended by participants from around the world, predominantly from Japan, the USA, England and France. School and student groups come from the European countries and from the Far East, German teachers from Western Europe, Turkey and from the USA. The new special course with integrated vocational training, an innovation from Hall in close collaboration with the city?s companies and institutions, sees an increasing demand from around the globe. So, the Goethe-Institute Schwäbisch Hall is in the process of increasingly presenting itself as a provider of services for companies.

The Goethe-Institute is generously situated in the medieval hospital building in the city?s pedestrian zone. Inside, you will find highly modern equipment with electronically-networked classrooms, numerous Multimedia-PCs for learning, and an internet room for the private use of the course attendees. Thus Hall?s Institut ranks among the best equipped institutes in Germany. This is only made possible through the enormous commitment of the city to ?its? Goethe-Institute, through donations from businesses as well as through the support of the highly active ?Freunde des Goethe-Instituts? (Friends of the Goethe-Institute) association. This association supports the management of the Institute and the teachers in establishing contacts on a personal level for the students during their stay. City administration, public institutions, companies and other groups also assist with the establishment of contacts and offer tryout trainings or vocational trainings. By the same token, the Goethe-Institute brings ?the world? into many citizen?s homes in this way. It further organises many small and large cultural events, from concert evenings to the International Summer Fest, from the art exposition with foreign artists to supra-regional symposia.

The greatest reward for the Director of the Institute, Peter Panes, a man who has worked abroad for many years, and for his committed employees is the time when older guests from far away visit the Institute as tourists and when they start to talk in fluent German about the times when they learned German here 20 or 30 years ago, and that Schwäbisch Hall still is their second home.
While talking, it often times turns out that these are people who are very important for the relationship of their country to Germany: university professors, parliamentarians, members of governments, company principals, researchers, high-ranking government oficials, journalists, directors of TV stations, clerical leaders.
They all have become important friends. And that holds true also for the present and the future: Today a student ? tomorrow a friend and partner.