Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be opening the language festival “SprachKulTour-Fest – Deutsch verbindet uns” (German links us) in Jena at 6.00 p.m. on Friday, 7 August. He will be speaking to some 500 teachers who teach German abroad, pupils from schools participating in the “Schools: Partners for the Future” initiative (PASCH), scholarship holders of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), as well as pupils from Jena.

During the festival, the Federal Minister will discuss the importance of the German language with the writers María Cecilia Barbetta, Tanja Dückers and Zafer Senocak. The Minister will ask the writers about their experiences as German writers abroad, as well as their motivation to write in German. Furthermore, the band Klee will perform their song “2 Fragen” (2 Questions).

The “SprachKulTour-Fest – Deutsch verbindet uns” is taking place during the Internationale Deutschlehrertagung (International German Teachers Conference) in Jena. With this festival, the Federal Foreign Office wants to acknowledge the success of the “Schools: Partners for the Future” initiative (PASCH) launched by Federal Minister Steinmeier. The goal of the initiative is to create a worldwide network of German-language partner schools. We want to stimulate interest in and enthusiasm for modern-day Germany and the German language – especially in the priority regions Asia, Middle East as well as Central and Eastern Europe. There are now about 1300 partner schools around the world.

The Federal Foreign Office is responsible for coordinating PASCH, which is being implemented in cooperation with the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), the Goethe-Institut (GI), the Educational Exchange Service of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (PAD) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
The German Bundestag made available 45 million euro for the implementation of the initiative in 2008, while a budget of 54 million euro has been provided for 2009.

Programme

from 5.30 p.m. short videos by pupils/young people on “An Deutschland gefällt mir …” (What I like about Germany is …), prize-winners of the Federal Foreign Office video competition for international school partnerships

5.50 p.m. rap and hiphop with “Bewegungsküche” (school project in Jena, www.bewegungskueche.de)

6.05 p.m. Address by Federal Minister Steinmeier

6.10 p.m. Video message from MIA (not yet confirmed)

6.15 p.m. Discussion about culture with Foreign Minister Steinmeier

Other participants: María Cecilia Barbetta, Tanja Dückers, Zafer Senocak

6.25 p.m. Short discussion with participants in “kulturweit” (Bridging Cultures), the Federal Foreign Office's new volunteer programme

6.30 p.m. Acoustic performance and interview featuring the band “KLEE”

6.40 p.m. Start of the PASCH balloon campaign, together with pupils from Jena and teachers from the Internationale Deutschlehrertagung (International German Teachers Conference)