14
Baku and Yerevan as well as with the Ger-
A Wandering Writer
Friend of the Museum > Natia Khuluzauri
Dr. Stephan Wackwitz was born in Stuttgart in 1952. He studied German and history in Munich and Stuttgart, and began working at the
Goethe Institute in 1986. He led the Goethe Institute in Tbilisi between 2012 and 2017 and became actively involved in the scientific and
cultural life of Georgia, implementing many interesting projects in collaboration with the Georgian National Museum.
Dr. Wackwitz, please tell us briefly
about yourself, your profession and ge-
neral interests.
I studied comparative literature and
history in the 70s and was a school te-
Book Art Center, the Conservatory, Ben-
acher in Germany for a short time, then
worked two years at King’s College Lon-
don. In 1986 I joined the Goethe Institu-
te and was posted in various cities such
as Frankfurt, Tokyo, Munich, New Delhi,
Tokyo, Krakow, Bratislava and New York
before coming to Tbilisi. Georgia was my
last regular post but I will go to Minsk af-
ter my retirement as temporary director.
In my functions for the Goethe Institute
I had administrative responsibilities, but
personally I am also a published writer
for newspapers and other periodicals in
Germany, on literature and various other
subjects.
Please introduce the Goethe Institute,
and its role in a broad context as well as
the role of GI in Georgia?
The Goethe Institute is the official cultu-
ral center of Germany abroad. We run 160
Institutes in 95 countries and have about
one thousand cooperating partners worl-
dwide. From Tbilisi, for instance, we coo-
perate with language teaching centers in
man Cultural Society in Tbilisi. The Institute
in Georgia is quite large, with three bran-
ches of activities: language, culture and the
library.
Since 1986 you have worked in many
cities all over the world. What does it
mean for you to meet with various peo-
ple and cultures?
I love it. I always wanted to live abroad.
Maybe it even runs a bit in the family, as
my father was with the Goethe Institute
too and my grandfather was a protestant
pastor living in Poland and in Namibia for
20 years. There are more Wackwitzes living
in the United States than in Germany! We
are a “wandering tribe”.
The last five years of your work was
connected with the Goethe Institute in
Tbilisi. How did it happen that you came
to Georgia – was it your special interest
in this country or the decision of the Ins-
titute?
I loved working in New York, but I missed
the warmer and more personal contacts
with people, which I had been accustomed
to during my long years in Poland and Slo-
vakia. New York is very interesting and so-
metimes you have the feeling you live in a
huge museum of modern culture, but after
a couple of years I felt I wanted to leave. It’s
not exactly a very warm, personal, caring
environment. I felt cold inside after a while.
As the Director and Chief of the Cul-
tural Programs of the Goethe Institute
you were actively involved in the cultu-
ral life of Georgia. Could you talk about
the main programs implemented here?
Who are your strategic partners?
For us, a strategic partner can be prac-
tically anybody in the field of cultural civil
society or in the government, or in creative
businesses who has a progressive, demo-
cratic agenda, good ideas and a determi-
nation to work with us for a certain period
of time on the basis of mutual respect and
reliability. So we worked, and still work,
with the Tbilisi International Film Festival ,
the Gift Festival, the Marjianishvili theatre,
CineDoc, the National Book Center and the
dukidze University and others, with the
Ministry of Education, Expo Georgia, and
the Center of Contemporary Art. These
are only a few that come to mind – and of
course with the National Museum. We de-
velop project ideas in discussions with our
partners and listen very carefully to their
ideas and advice.
The Goethe Institute and the Geor-
gian National Museum are long-term
partners and we have implemented
a number of projects together (exhi-
bitions, publications, conferences,
workshops, film screenings, etc.). How
can cultural institutions contribute to
the development of a country?
The Georgian National Museum is a
very good example of how a cultural ins-
titution can help develop a country. Our
programs showed that the GNM under
David Lordkipanidze has not only mo-
dernized a former Soviet institution from
the bottom up according to international
standards, but has also put the museum
on the international map. GNM is seen by
its peers as an absolute benchmark insti-
tution in the post-Soviet region. A good
museum is a very important factor in the
transformation of society, because mu-
seums are storehouses of national know-
ledge – witnesses of past experience that
are needed urgently in order for societies
to develop. That is one of many reasons
that David Lordkipanidze received the
Goethe-Medaille in 2016, an official de-
coration from Germany awarded by the
Goethe Institute.
What are the qualities that are highly
important for cultural institutions in the
21st century?
Flexibility, an international outlook, in-
dependence from political influences, and
the courage to be entertaining, interesting
or controversial.
What is your advice to the leaders of
cultural policy in Georgia?
To understand that envy and adversity
from any source is a compliment in disgui-
se.
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 15