By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
It’s natural for human beings to want to show their good side rather than their bad. Institutions or countries, being made up of human beings, are no different.
However, the director of Germany’s cultural institute in Seoul said that his institute does not exist only to show good aspects of Germany, but all aspects because that’s crucial to the understanding of a country’s culture.
``One of the main objectives of the Goethe Institute is to convey an `all-round’image of Germany by providing information about its culture, society and politics,’’ Jurgen Keil, director of Goethe Institute in Seoul, told The Korea Times. ``All-round, this is very important. We don’t want to be just a voice of the government.’’
This is one of three main objectives posted on the web site of the Goethe Institute.
Keil said that institutes around the world show all kinds of cultural aspects of Germany and sometimes even extreme examples such as terrorism.
For example, about 30 years ago, when a film dealing with the Red Army Faction(RAF), more commonly associated with the Baader-Meinhof Group was released, the German government didn’t encourage discussion on the issue because it represented a negative image of Germany, but the Goethe Institute opened it to the public for discussion.
Particularly, the institute delves into reconciliation because of Germany's history of a divided nation becoming unified is relevant to Korea.
The director stressed that the main reason why the institute can conduct broad activities lies in its independence from the German government: The Goethe Institute is a non-profit, non-governmental organization and officials of the institutes like Keil are not civil servants.
Keil said it is very good to build up a cultural policy independent from political influence.
When politics becomes intertwined with culture, it becomes difficult to make consistent cultural policies in the long term.
``They separated cultural relations from the actual diplomacy of foreign offices,’’he said. ``But in a way, it’s also integrated at the same time.’’
Actually, the separation was very important and useful for Germany, too, especially in the Cold-War years when Goethe Institute could easily have a meeting with, for example, a librarian from East Germany. ``They came together and worked on culture,’’ he added.
Another special mission of Keil is to take care of the Goethe Information Center in Pyongyang, which opened in April 2004 and which he regularly visits.
The center, the first of it’s kind established by a Western country, has now about 5,000 media units such as books, cassettes and films open to the North Korean public.
Though North Korean authorities agreed to give free access to the center, it is not easy to get access from a practical point of view, Keil said. Plus, he faces unexpected stumbling blocks sometimes when implementing planned projects.
For instance, South Korean, North Korean and German musicians were to have a concert in honor of late composer Isang Yun in Berlin on Oct. 3, which is Germany’s unification day, but North Korea just canceled it in July without offering any reasons.
``The information center in Pyongyang, it’s only start,’’ he said. ``We are not 100 percent sure. But it’s working and they (North Koreans) keep it up and running.’’
For more information about the institute in Seoul, visit its web site www.goethe.de/ins/kr. It will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its establishment in September 2008.