Malta at Berlin Street Festival celebrating EU Enlargement

Together with the Embassies of the other nine accession countries, the Embassy of Malta in Berlin took part in a Street Festival held over two days (30th April - 1st May) to mark the EU enlargement, as well as to inaugurate the ‘Cultural Year of the Accession Countries’ which is a year-long cultural celebration of the ten new EU states’ cultures throughout Germany. The Festival took place at the very central Pariser Platz, just off the Brandenburg Gate, and was attended by thousands throughout the two days. Malta had a 6-metre information and tourist publicity stand manned by the Embassy staff as well as a ‘Maltese country girl’ and a ‘Knight of Malta’, who were kept extremely busy handing out information brochures and literature and answering innumerable questions about Malta. The public had the opportunity to participate in a competition about Malta with a week’s stay in a leading hotel in Malta as the prize. An adjoining food tent was set up by a catering firm selling Maltese food as well as wine and Kinnie. The Berlin choir ‘The Embassy Singers’ performed a piece by composer Carmelo Pace in the original Maltese close to midnight on 30th April, just before the fireworks display from Malta was shown on a big screen. Earlier that day, the event had been inaugurated by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit. Mr Wowereit stopped at the stand and sampled Kinnie, before escorting Malta’s Ambassador Mr William C. Spiteri to the main stage for the official opening. On 1st May, the Maltese band ‘the Beangrowers’ gave an hour-long performance on the main stage, which was very well received by those present.

GMC member and German language course student
General Manager Raiffeisen Malta Bank plc
Vice-President of FC Bayern München Fan Club Malta
Interviewed by Ingrid B. Kidder

Tony Schembri was born in the United Kingdom but grew up in his parents’ homeland – Malta. After his local schooling, he followed special courses, qualified as an accountant and obtained his Master’s degree in Financial Services at the University of Malta. At the beginning of his career in the financial sector, he worked for Maltese banks. In 1997 he was offered the position as General Manager at Raiffeisen Malta Bank plc, a subsidiary of the Austrian Raiffeisen Zentralbank. It was this position – which he still holds – that brought him in regular contact with the German language. But Tony Schembri is not just a successful bank manager.

Since his childhood, he fancied the German football clubs, especially FC Bayern München. The urge to become acquainted with the German language – and, through it, to get closer to his sports idols - was nagging him throughout his youth. So after he joined the Austrian Bank, he felt he could ‘mix business with pleasure’, and decided the time was ripe to learn German.

He began with taking private lessons in 1999, and after two years joined the GMC courses, aiming for the MATSEC and Goethe Institute examinations. Over the years he passed his Ordinary Level and the Zertifikat Deutsch, and is now aiming for the Advanced Level, which he is taking this year and the Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung in 2005.

Tony Schembri is not only a hard-working person in his profession and an ardent student of the German language at the Circle. Three years ago he crowned his childhood football enthusiasm by setting up the FC Bayern München Fan Club Malta and becoming a very active Vice-President of the Club. Football is a sport, I do not know much about, let alone what a Fan Club in one country for a Football Team in another country would offer. So I asked Tony to outline the Fan Club’s activities for our readers. This is a summary of some of the amazing things he told me:

The aim of the Club is to promote German football in Malta, both at national and international level. This Bayern München Fan Club has over a hundred members (mostly gentlemen, of course!). They meet every Saturday afternoon at the Club’s premises in Hamrun to watch together the matches of the Bundesliga (the German National League). It goes without saying that for these weekly highlights the members are clad in the red and white shirts (Trikots) and scarves of Bayern München, and, of course, celebrations are loud and flags are waved when their team scores. A particularly exciting day for the fan club is when the German National Team plays against another country.

The Maltese Fan Club is officially recognised as a member of FC Bayern München, and Tony explained, that there are hundreds of Bayern München Fan Clubs around the world. Raimund Aumann, former goalkeeper of Bayern München is President of the Fan Clubs Association. The local Fan Club is proud to have hosted Michael Skibbe, the assistant trainer of the German National Team, a year ago, and is now aiming to bring over the National Team coach Rudi Völler, in the near future.

Occasionally Tony takes his seven year old son Patrick to a Saturday Fan Club event, while his wife Mariella and daughter Rebecca (10) enjoy a quiet afternoon without their men folk. Learning about the game and experiencing the enthusiasm at an early age – that’s Tony’s football motto. And, who knows, perhaps with Patrick we have a budding great footballer – or a devoted future Bayern München fan - in our midst!
  

Members of the German-Maltese Circle whose attendance in the German language Grundstufe courses organised for them during the scholastic year 2003-2004 has been 60% or more, are eligible to sit for the end-of-year examinations which will be held at our premises as shown:

CERTIFICATES issued under the auspices of the Goethe Institute of Munich will be distributed to successful candidates later on in the year.

Schiller Abend – a successful evening at Messina Palace last week when Heinz-Josef Kaspar entertained a sizeable audience of Germans residing in Malta and of German-speaking Maltese, members of the Circle with his recitation of excerpts from some of Schiller’s masterpieces. H.E.Mr Georg Merten, the German Ambassador (on the left) was also present.

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