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| February 2003 Newsletter | |||
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| Herr Dr Joachim Hietzig | |||
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The President, the Committee and all members of the German-Maltese Circle wish a happy retirement to Herr Dr. Joachim Hietzig who has been Malta’s Honorary Consul for Bavaria since 1969 and also our Honorary Consul General for the State of Saxony since 1992. Dr Hiezig has worked very hard towards furthering the good relationship between Malta and Germany. He was (and still is !) a strong supporter and admirer of our Association and our
objectives.
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| FC Bayern Munchen Fan Club – Malta by Anthony C Schembri - Vice President | |
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| Olaf Rieck’s corner: | |
 Videos: Colin J. Smith hat uns viele neue Videos gespendet, darunter auch zahlreiche Filme für Kinder wie z.B. Bambi, Bernard & Bianca, Die Schöne und das Biest, Das Dschungelbuch, Das grosse Krabbeln. . Bücher: Neu in der Bibliothek ist das Läster-Lexikon, das dem Deutsch-Maltesischen Zirkel vom Autor Dr. Walter Laufenberg geschenkt wurde. Hier ein Auszug zum Stichwort Bauer: Bauer ist das Gegenstück zu Dichter. Für die Grundversorgung einer Gesellschaft ist der eine so wichtig wie der andere. Denn der Mensch lebt nicht von Brot allein. Was mit einer Gesellschaft los ist, erkennt man daran, wie sie den einen und den anderen fördert. Dr. Laufenberg ist nicht nur Autor vieler Bücher sondern auch Herausgeber des wöchentlich erscheinenden Internetmagazins ‘Laufenberg NETzine’ (www.netzine.de).
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| With this issue of the Newsletter we are introducing a Who’s Who page and we are starting with our Librarian Olaf Rieck or, as he is affectionately known especially by many schoolchildren, Mister Olaf: | |
We have asked Olaf to tell us something about himself and this is what we received. Most of you know me either personally perhaps when you come to the Library or else through this newsletter. Recently I was entrusted with the promotion campaign launched by the Goethe Institute Inter Nationes and the German-Maltese Circle with the support of the German Embassy in Malta aimed at making students in Year 5 at the Primary Schools more concious of the importance of choosing and studying German in Secondary School and at the Junior Lyceum. Therefore in the last months I visited more than 40 schools and talked to more than 3000 students about Germany and the German language. I introduced myself in Maltese by telling them, “Jien jisimni Olaf” and the students immediately started calling me “Mister Olaf”. While doing these visits, I was impressed by the alertness and the participation of most of the schoolchildren. Probably I was the first German they had talked to and so it was natural to expect a bombardment of queries. Usually the first questions were about football (“How many football clubs are there in Germany”) and cars/car racing (“Have you ever met Michael Schumacher”). Then came questions such as “Are there sharks and lions in Germany?”, “What is the favourite German food”, ”Why do Germans like sausages so much?” and “What is the religion?” and “Are all Germans as tall as you” (I am 1.92 cm). Very interesting was the answer when I questioned them about the capital city. Very often they replied: Munich (which I expected), and Bonn (which surprised me because of the age of the students – 9 and 10 years). Sometimes questions about my personal life are asked. I told them that my wife is Maltese and that we first met in an English language school, where she was teaching me. I also told them that I live in Rabat and that my favourite Maltese dish is “Ghagin il-forn” and my German favourite is “Schwarzbrot”. I have been working for more than 2 years at the German-Maltese Circle. Before I came to Malta I worked in the field of arts management in a theatre in Germany. In that way I was able to combine my personal interest in culture and art with my educational background (I studied Economics and Social-Economics). My previous employer was the Halle (Saale) Opera House ( www.opernhaus-halle.de ) in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. During my five years working and living there, I had the opportunity to watch many performances and to listen to numerous concerts even in Leipzig and in Weimar. My interest especially in contemporary music (for example by Messiaen, Berg, Poulenc) grew stronger during that time. The art scene in the region was also very lively with some interesting museums and many small galleries. I had the opportunity to come in contact with art from East Germany done during the time of the GDR (Sitte, Heisig, Tübke) and after the reunification (Penz, Götze). It was interesting to get to know how people experienced the two periods, on how it was and on how it is at present to work as an artist. It was in Halle when I started to collect art books. Obviously I am also still interested in Economics and especially in cultural economics and arts management. I grew up in a village area. My parents’ house is only five minutes away from an elbow of the river Elbe. Fortunately the flood last year did not damage anything there but the people were very afraid. In the past when there were no dykes the people found shelter in the church (see picture) which was built on the highest point of the area and which has a balcony inside where people used to wait until the flood was over ( www.st-severini.de ). The church is built with typical red bricks. Interesting is that the steeple built from wood has no connection to the church but stands some 20 metres away from it. During a visit to my family last year which was planned to coincide with the Golden Confirmation of my father (an occasion which is very much celebrated in our region) I made a presentation about Malta – my second home, in our parish hall (which is a renovated barn). I spoke about Malta and my experiences and showed a video. Furthermore my wife and I prepared some food and drinks typical of Malta (Bajtar, Gbejniet, Figolli, Galetti etc.). It was not surprising that immediately afterwards the audience started to discuss and plan a trip to Malta. I like promoting Malta so that more and more Germans become aware of Malta and hopefully will spend a nice holiday here. Also last year, I visited my former village school, where I embarked on establishing some contacts with schools in Malta. I hope something will develop - my wish would be the initiation of some exchanges. My family likes Malta and some of my relatives will come for Easter to see how it is celebrated in Malta. Even my grandmother came to celebrate her 85th birthday here. After fifty years it was the second time in her life that she flew in an aeroplane.
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