Despite tense Egyptian-German relations following the crisis of funding civil society organizations, German cultural institutions are still working in rural Egypt and providing services to the public.
Germany on the banks of the Nile
Despite tense Egyptian-German relations following the crisis of funding civil society organizations, German cultural institutions are still working in rural Egypt and providing services to the public.
Germany on the banks of the Nile
The Robert Bosch Foundation (RBF), a German foundation, has been working in Egypt since 2005 in cooperation with the Goethe Institute in Cairo. It provides the service of cultural management and organizes activities in Cairo, Alexandria, Mansoura in the Nile Delta and in the cities in Upper Egypt.
Speaking at a seminar by German Writer Chris Peters, RBF cultural director in the Nile Delta Angela Verweyen said when RBF started its activities in Egypt eight years ago, it had one single office in Cairo. Now, she says, it has three offices; two in Upper Egypt and one in the Delta serving Mansoura, Damanhur, and Damietta.
The revolution has brought civil work to the street
RBF organizes many activities, including concerts of German bands in Shajar al-Durr Garden in Mansoura, in addition to readings with German writers in a number of cultural centers and a German film club at Box and Beans Library.
The revolutionary situation has largely freed RBF’s activities. Verweyen says the liberation of the public sphere has expanded the participation of the people and civil organizations in activities, so RBF has gone out to public parks and private cultural centers, while such activities were previously restricted to cooperation with the government cultural centers.
RBF works without a special permit since it is subject to the Egyptian German Cultural Convention under which the Goethe Institute works. This, says Verweyen, explains people’s reassurance, especially since such activities have nothing to do with politics.
Universities are attraction factor
Abdurrahman, one of the seminar attendees, suggests that German cultural activity is expected in a city with a large university like Mansoura where some of its students think about completing their studies in Germany. Through RBF’s activities, he says, young people communicate with the latest German intellectual and cultural production.
Learning about Germany, Dr. Amir Shukri says that young Egyptians do not fear German culture since the progress scope the German experience offers makes them eager to understand culture as a background or introduction to such superiority.
Mansoura doctors dream of Germany
Amr Abdulkarim, Director of cultural relations at Modern Library, which hosts the seminar, believes this activity is an introduction to understanding the diversity of the world, especially since the Egyptians are only influenced by the American culture.
Amr Shaer, a teacher of German language, thinks that the seminars coincide with the tendency of a large number of Mansoura young people to learn German, especially doctors wishing to continue their studies and work in Germany. Having no political agenda to the contrary of its American peers, RBF, he says, is closer to the minds and hearts of the Egyptians.
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