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The Ernst Reuter Initiative for Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding
Ernst Reuter Initiative for cultural dialogue and understanding
The aim of the Ernst Reuter Initiative (ERI) is to enhance German-Turkish cooperation in many fields: the arts and culture, politics and the media, the economy, science and education. It was launched in September 2006 by the then Federal Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and his Turkish counterpart at the time, Abdullah Gül.
ERI’s aim is to publicize and enlist support for ideas, projects and programmes designed to promote intercultural dialogue and to highlight the value of such dialogue. ERI embraces diverse projects from the fields of the arts, culture and media, youth and Young Professionals, higher education and research, and integration. The Initiative’s most prominent supporters, who have agreed to advance the aims of ERI using their expertise and their role as disseminators of knowledge, also come from these fields.
Ernst Reuter
© Landesarchiv Berlin
The Initiative is named after Ernst Reuter, a Social Democrat who sought refuge from the Nazis in Turkey. He worked as adviser to the Turkish Ministry of Economics before returning to Berlin after the War, where in 1947 he was elected Governing Mayor. Many people who fled their Nazi persecutors and found refuge in Turkey in the thirties and forties have retained a close bond to this day with the land that gave them shelter. Hence it is also one of the Initiative’s goals to remember this historic bond between our two countries and to strengthen and enhance mutual trust and cooperation in the future, too.
In the following pages you will find more information on the Ernst Reuter Initiative and its current projects in various fields; there is also information on the Initiative’s sponsors.
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Last updated 05.05.2011
