The Goethe-Institut New York is an organization that is located at 30
Irving Place
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along its ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
The organization is part of the worldwide
Goethe-Institut non-profit association. It fosters cultural cooperation and promotes
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...
learning by offering the public opportunities to interact with themes and questions relevant to
German culture
The culture of Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically, Germany has been called ''Das Land der Dichter und Denker'' (the country of poets and thinkers). German cult ...
and society.
The institute provides grants for translation in subject areas like democracy, current regional and global issues, the cultural dimension of European integration, recent
German history
The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples.
The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman gen ...
or outstanding works of contemporary German literature.
History
120 East 56th Street
The Goethe-Institut New York origins were with the Goethe-Haus (New York), ''an organization founded for the purpose of furthering cultural relations between the people of Germany and the people of the United States,'' The Goethe House was founded April 12, 1957, as an American non-profit membership corporation in New York City.
The institute has its beginning in the Goethe Etage, an office building at 120 East 56th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, to provide enough space for its books, small exhibitions, and lectures.
The inaugural address was given by
James B. Conant
James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard in 1916. ...
, former President of Harvard University,
John J. McCloy's successor as High Commissioner in Germany, and from 1955–57 America's first Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. John J. McCloy, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, had presented the plan for the establishment of such a cultural center to Chancellor of Germany
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...
three years earlier.
James B. Conant became President of Goethe House, John J. McCloy became Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Under the stewardship of McCloy and his former political adviser in Germany Samuel Reber, who becomes Goethe House's first administrator, the cultural center served as a forum for German representatives in art and culture.
1014 Fifth Avenue
![1014 5th Avenue 002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/1014_5th_Avenue_002.JPG)
The German government gives Goethe House a new home at 1014 Fifth Avenue.
Acquired from the estate of
James W. Gerard, pre-World War I American Ambassador to Imperial Germany, the mansion becomes the home of Goethe House for over fifty years.
In 1969 the Goethe House, while retaining its original name, became a branch of the Munich-based
Goethe-Institut and since then received financial support from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Following an international design competition in 2021, the German government appointed
David Chipperfield Architects
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
to convert the building into a new centre for transatlantic dialogue, at a cost of around 20 million euros.
38 Ludlow Street
Designed by artists
Ethan Breckenridge and
Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City. , ''Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38'' was founded as a space in 2008 for experiments within contemporary art. The venue is located on the Lower East Side in the tradition of the German ''
Kunstverein''. Ludlow 38 was initially programmed by a different German Kunstverein each year:
Kunstverein München
The Kunstverein München (km) is a non-profit art association located in the Hofgarten in Munich, Germany. It was founded in 1823 and is one of the oldest German art associations.
The Kunstverein, a privately sponsored association with almost 1,3 ...
in 2008, followed by the European Kunsthalle and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.
72 Spring Street
On April 15, 2010 the Goethe-Institut New York announced the relocation of its library and administrative offices to 72 Spring Street. Located in the East Village off Bowery, the Wyoming Building became a space for talks, performances, film screenings, installations, and exhibitions.
30 Irving Place
New spaces on the first and fourth floors of 30 Irving Place opened in March 2015 to the public with space for lectures and film screenings, a library, reading rooms, language classrooms, and offices.
North American region
The Goethe-Institut New York is also regional coordinator of 10 institutes and one center in the
North American region, which comprises
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and committed to the same set of goals and objectives. In the United States:
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, New York,
Washington, D.C.
)
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,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, and the Goethe-Zentrum in Atlanta. In Canada:
Ottawa,
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, and
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. In Mexico:
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
. Cuba also belongs to the North American region and work leading to the establishment of a Goethe-Institut in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. is currently underway.
Goethe-Institut New York Library
The Goethe-Institut New York Library is a
lending library
A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a library ...
that has a collection of approximately 8,000 volumes. The collection features four areas of specialization: contemporary German art, contemporary and classic German literature, German film and German history from the late 19th century to the present.
Exhibitions (selected)
* 1968:
Max Beckmann
Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...
, Die Druckgrafik (Library)
* 1973:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement.
Fassbinder's main ...
, Retrospective
* 1985:
Wols
Wols was the pseudonym of Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze (27 May 19131 September 1951), a German painter and photographer predominantly active in France. Though broadly unrecognized in his lifetime, he is considered a pioneer of lyrical abstracti ...
, Drawings and Watercolors
* 1992:
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Rirkrit Tiravanija ( th, ฤกษ์ฤทธิ์ ตีระวนิช, pronunciation: [] or Tea-rah-vah-nitJerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Be ...
, ''Consumed''
* 1999: Nam June Paik, Buddha Watching TV, 1974/97
* 2004:
Candida Höfer
Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a former student of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Like other Becher students, Höfer's work is known for technical perfection and a strictly conceptual approach. From 1997 to 2000, ...
: Traces / Spuren
*2016–17:
Elias Wessel, Stuck Together Pieces!
References
External links
*
LibraryLudlow 38
{{Authority control
German-language education
Cultural promotion organizations
Gramercy Park
Cultural centers in New York City
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...