Goethe's birthday!
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© Wendy Thomson
To celebrate our namesake's 265th birthday, we screened the film Goethe! by Philipp Stölzl. For those of you who missed it, you can watch a trailer here.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Johann Wolfgang!
German Samoa, 1900-1914
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© Astrid Wolter
August 2014 was the 100 year anniversary not just of the beginning of World War I, but of the end of German rule of Western Samoa. We were delighted to have Ulli Weissbach speaking about Samoa's 14 years as a German colony.
Ulli Weissbach is a TV producer and director of PACIFICA Productions, specialising in documentaries and other media productions on the South Pacific. Based in Auckland, PACIFICA produces programmes for European broadcasters including ARD, ZDF, Arte, 3sat.
Evening with Auckland Philharmonia Chief Conductor Eckehard Stier
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© Astrid Wolter
In anticipation of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s concert performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde on 19 July - the first ever in New Zealand - on 19 July, the Auckland Goethe Society was privileged to host an evening with the conductor – APO Chief Conductor and Music Director Eckehard Stier.
Maestro Stier spoke about his career in Dresden and Auckland, and gave fascinating insights into Wagner's masterpiece - both the work itself, and the practical challenges of performing it, even today.
Evening with conceptual artist Brydee Rood
/Brydee Rood is a conceptual artist who has spent time in Berlin. She shared her insights on her work and her time in Germany.
© Astrid Wolter
© Astrid Wolter
Information evening - student exchanges to Germany
/The Goethe Society and German Studies and University of Auckland organised an information evening for students about exchanges to Germany. Four students shared their experiences as exchange students in Germany:
Miriam Chew (Bucerius Law School, Hamburg)
Jerry Yelich-O'Connor (Uni Heidelberg)
Eleanor Quirke (Winterkurs in Leipzig)
Joshua van Veen (Uni Marburg)
Literary evening with Maike Wetzel
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© Astrid Wolter
Writer in Residence (in Wellington) Maike Wetzel read in German and English from her book Lange Tage/Long Days. This was followed by a most interesting discussion.
Wanderausflug in die Waitakere Ranges
/Walk to the Waitakere ranges.
Wir hatten vor, dem Omanawanui- und Puririweg zu folgen aber… die Nacht davor hatte es so stark geregnet, dass es eine richtige Flut auf der Straße Richtung Whatipu gab, so daß wir unsere Pläne ändern mußten. Eine kleine Gruppe von uns (Nathalie, Wendy und Doris) nahm den schönen Exhibition Track. Es war ein wunderschöner Ausflug.
Wendy Thomson
Poetry reading by the Eketahuna German Literature Society
/“German Poems and that, aye”.
© Astrid Wolter
What a fun evening we had at the book launch of Eketahuna German Literature Society - A Poetry Collection!
Assisted at times by members of the Auckland Goethe Society and the audience, curators and translators Cordelia Black and Robbie Ellis read several of their collected German poems, together with their very ‘kiwi’ interpretations.
Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, Heine, Rilke, Schumann and other well-known German poets have never before been translated into quite the English of these talented, unconventional and humorous young Kiwis.
A superb evening… and many copies of their book were sold, with gratefully accepted personalised messages from Robbie and Cordelia.
Wendy Thomson
© Astrid Wolter