Ten German reporters have been staying in Rijeka since yesterday on a visit introducing a year-long programme whose aim is to cover the events of the Rijeka – European Capital of Culture 2020 project.
Ten German cultural reporters arrived in Rijeka for a two-day visit that will kick off a series of activities organised by the German Cultural Forum for Central and Eastern Europe that are aiming to cover and document the programme taking place next year in Rijeka, when the city will hold the title of the European Capital of Culture.
The following reporters have arrived in Rijeka: Alena Wagnerová-Köhler (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Kulturzeitschrift Literární noviny), Cord Aschenbrenner (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Achim Engelberg (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Der Freitag, Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik), Sigrid Hoff (RBB Kulturradio), Eva Steinlein (NDR Kultur, Tagesschau), Ilka Desgranges (Saarbrücker Zeitung), Hubert Wolf (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung), Conrad Lay (Deutschlandfunk), Ute Büsing (RBB Inforadio/Kultur), Hanns-Christoph Koch (3sat Kulturzeit) and Gregor Mayer (Deutsche Presse-Agentur).
Yesterday, on 24 October, Prof. Angela Ilić from the Institute for German Culture and History of South-East Europe at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, took the reporters on a tour of the city, as well as the State Archives and the university library and arranged a meeting with Dr. Petra Žagar-Šoštarić, Chair of the Department of German Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, library consultant Lea Lazzarich, as well as Prof. Boris Dudaš, PhD, Student Council president Marko Berberović and other students.
The reporters met Ivan Šarar, Head of the Department of Culture of the City of Rijeka, today, followed by a meeting with the RIJEKA 2020 team, which will present the projects. The German reporters will visit the pupils and professors at the Andrija Mohorovičić Grammar School, as well as the Rijeka City Museum, where they will be welcomed by the Director Dr. Ervin Dubrović and Prof. Irvin Lukežić, PhD.
This study visit by the German reporters is the first in a range of activities organised in Rijeka by the German Cultural Forum for Central and Eastern Europe. From May to October 2020, a literary residency programme will be held for a German writer or reporter, who will cover the events of the ECoC project and write about the city over a period of six months. During this period, the selected writer/reporter will actively participate in the city’s cultural life and deal with the common aspects of culture and history in his or her texts. The German Cultural Forum for Central and Eastern Europe wants to use the residencies as a platform for promoting intercultural dialogue and introducing the public at large to the joint cultural heritage of the Germans and their neighbours, especially in areas formerly (or still) inhabited by Germans.
In June and July of 2020, a film crew shooting a documentary on the residency, Rijeka and the ECoC programme will join the selected writer/reporter, while the premiere of the documentary is slated for late 2020 in Rijeka and Berlin.
