Year-Long Celebration to Be Launched Marking Georgia-Germany Relations

On April 21 the Georgia-Germany Year 2017 will officially begin, with an opening ceremony to be held at Tbilisi City Assembly, marking and celebrating two of the most important dates: the arrival of the first German immigrants to Georgia 200 years ago and the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. 2018 will then mark 100 years since the recognition of independence for the first Democratic Republic of Georgia by Germany in 1918.

Under the patronage of the German and Georgian foreign ministers, with the slogan ‘Heritage of the Future,’ the Georgia-Germany Year 2017 program entails a series of important events to be organized both in both countries with the financial and organizational support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Goethe Institute, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia. In addition, Georgia is to be the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2018.

The involvement and participation of many partner organizations in the Georgia-Germany year-long celebratory program enables the showcasing of the existing diversity of strong ties between Georgia and Germany through numerous cultural events, theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions, literature evenings, business forums and projects in the development, economic and sports spheres.

Goethe Institute President, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, and the Charge d’ Affairs of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cultural Policy Issues, will be coming to Tbilisi to attend the official opening ceremony on April 21. As part of the opening ceremony an exhibition titled ‘The Heritage of the Future -200 years: Georgian -German Stories’ will be held, showing materials illustrating the history of Georgian-German relations using a web archive to be created by the Georgian organization Sovlab, with the financial support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia. The web archive aims to preserve and promote documents and historic sources related to Georgian-German relations.

The Georgian-German year will officially be launched on April 26, at the World Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, to be attended by the Georgian and German foreign ministers.

More information regarding the Georgian-German Year can be found at www.facebook.com/DeuGeo2017

Nino Gugunishvili