Internationale Netzwerke für die Zukunft

This year’s recipients of the Goethe Medal talk at Kunstfest Weimar about the importance of cultural work in preserving a diverse cultural heritage, the role of language teaching in intercultural exchange and the question of what form democracies must take to meet the global challenges of the future. In 2025 medals are awarded to the cultural advocate Osman Kavala from Turkey, the scholar of German studies and expert in German as a foreign language Li Yuan from China and the author David Van Reybrouck from Belgium. With the organisations they have founded, they promote cultural diversity and dialogue, demonstrate great support for teaching the German language and give visibility to perspectives that are often excluded from the writing of history. The effects of the awardees innovative approaches and projects extend far beyond Turkey, China and Belgium. Since 1955, the Goethe-Institut has awarded the Goethe Medal once a year as an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. The most important prize in Germany’s foreign cultural policy is awarded to public figures who have rendered outstanding services to the teaching of the German language and international cultural exchange. Osman Kavala is unable to take part in the discussion due to his continued imprisonment in Turkey, his wife Ayşe Buğra Kavala will speak in his place.

In German and English with German and English translation.