Filfla and Toteninsel is the title of an art exhibition by 27 Maltese artists inspired by Arnold Bocklin’s famous painting “Island of the Dead” and which is showing at Messina Palace until the 16^th November.  The exhibition is open on weekdays from 9.00a.m. till noon and from 4.30p.m. till 8.30p.m. and on Saturdays between 9.00a.m. and 1.00p.m.
 

Gesprächsrunde – Discussion & Conversation Meetings

Members of the German-Maltese Circle with a good command of the German language are encouraged to join these discussion groups which aim at promoting the spoken language.    All sessions start at 6.30p.m. The following themes are planned:

Wednesday, 7^th November:  “Matthias Brechtl – Ein moderner Dürer conducted by Frau Ute Ruppert-Hung
Wednesday, 21^st November: “Sport is auch im Alter gesund” conducted by Dr Erich Hilsenitz
 

Friday, 9^th November at 6.30p.m. “Himmel ohne Sterne” (Sky without stars) is an emotional tale of star-crossed lovers kept apart by the deadly divide of the border between West and East Germany. Anna's son is being raised in the West by his grandparents. Her attempt to steal him away to the East leads to romance with a West German border guard Karl. They regularly meet in the dangerous no-man's land to plan a life together in the West.  This film is claimed to be one of the most underrated masterpieces of German cinema of the fifties.  It is directed by Helmut Kräutner. 
The film is in German but with English sub-titles. 
MEMBERS AND FRIENDS ARE WELCOME – Entrance is free

Dr Günther Jacobs will be conducting a literature discussion group for members of the Circle with a very advanced level of German at Messina Palace.  First session will be on Wednesday, 14^th November.  Sessions will then be held on Fridays every fortnight.  Time 6.30p.m.  No prior enrolment is required but those attending must have their membership paid.
 

Richard Wagner – Giuseppe Verdi: Songs for Voice and Pianoforte

Gottfried Wagner, the great-grandson of the composer Richard Wagner, is a musicologist, philosopher and Germanist, who has been repeatedly awarded for his artistic and academic activities as well as for his humanitarian involvements. He will present a multimedia talk on the interaction of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi and their influence on the music of the nineteenth century. Mezzosopran Alessandra Vavasori, accompanied by pianist Nicola Tumicioli will recite Lieder by Wagner and Verdi. As part of the series “Meet the Composer” this event is produced in co-operation with the German Embassy and will take place at St. James Cavalier on Wednesday, 28^th November, 2007, 20.00hrs.

For further details see the website of St. James Cavalier: www.sjcav.org.
 

German-Maltese Circle 45th Anniversary

The German-Maltese Circle celebrated its 45^th Anniversary since its Foundation with a Dinner at Villa Arrigo on the 18^th October. Here we are reproducing the speech given by the German Ambassador, H.E. Karl Andreas von Steglin on this occasion: 

Today we are celebrating the 45th anniversary of the German Maltese Circle. Being actively involved in German-Maltese affairs for such a long time – and, much more, having been and still being personally involved in it, as some of you are – certainly means putting very much effort and energy into a difficult – but most important – project.   Therefore, I would like to thank – first af all – Ingrid Kidder, but also Albert Friggieri, Carmel Fenech and John Pisani (who unfortunately could not be with us today) as former Presidents of the Circle. 

We are very thankful for what you are doing – the German-Maltese Circle is not only the equivalent to other cultural institutes in Malta (the French as well as the Italian, the Spanish, the Russian and the Chinese one) but – even from it’s title – actively provides a platform for bilateral cultural dialogue.  Our Embassy as much as myself are very much looking forward to further cooperation, support and discussion – I am quite convinced that your next visitor – Federal President Professor Horst Köhler – will also be impressed by what you have managed to organize and keep running through all these years. 

45 years is quite a long time. However, with 45 one still is not over age. Which means: one still has a future (at least another 45 years!).  The German-Maltese relationship has fruitfully developed and brought quite a number of changes, new fields of cooperation and some interesting initiatives. I mention the integration of Malta into the European Union, the Euro changeover in 2008, our bilateral cooperation within the Framework of Justice and Home Affairs and the continuing expansion of German investment.  

All this needs a bilateral understanding, which, after all, is a matter of language. Horribile dictu, there is English for all of us. On the other hand, knowing one another does not go without knowing the language of the other. Which means: Learning the language of the other.   Therefore, the work of the German-Maltese Circle in the field of teaching German as a foreign language can hardly be underestimated. The results your language students have produced during examinations speak for themselves. 

Teaching a language does also mean: Communicating a certain image of the country, providing lexical and grammatical understanding, but, as an institution, being the active and living image of what the cultural, political and economic reality of the country one is talking about actually looks like. Although Germany may still be love-hated as the “Wintermärchen” of Heinrich Heine, we since had our Friedrich Nietzsche, our Hindemith and our Joseph Beuys, all of them translating a particular German phenomenon into their language, namely the ability to establish a new point of reference while still, somehow, referring to tradition.  It will be hard to separate the language from this and other contents, furthermore: The content is needed to create an interest in the language that, hopefully, will last longer than, for instance, a particular job opportunity one is interested in. 

The reason why I am mentioning this is because of a current effort at Malta University to establish a full range BA (Hons.) capacity for German studies. This is another example for a German Maltese project which, already, has a very positive effect and could create, as one might say, sustainable development both in cultural terms and on a wider range. The German-Maltese Circle is playing an active role within the process already, not only by providing and supervising the teaching of the German language, but by being personally, physically and courageously active within the already existing structure at the University. 

I do very much hope that we can continue to work together on this and other future projects constructively, and with open spirits, or, like Tristan Tzara has put it: “Der Kopf ist rund, damit er in verschiedene Richtungen denken kann” (“The head is round, so it enables one to think in different directions”) 

So much for the next 45 years.  Und: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!
 

Dr. med. Eric Hilsenitz 
Specialist for Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine & Naturopathy
Member of the German-Maltese Circle and of the German-Maltese Medical Society
Interviewed by Ingrid B. Kidder

Eric Hilsenitz was born in 1941 and with his two siblings grew up in Kiel, capital of Schleswig-Holstein. During World War II his father had been submarine commander in the Baltic Sea and the family was stationed near Danzig. Towards the end of the war they were to be evacuated to the West when, by an act of providence, they escaped the “WILHELM GUSTLOFF” disaster. This former pleasure steamer, with nearly 10.000 wounded soldiers and refugees on board, was torpedoed near Danzig on 30^th January, 1945. Only about 1.200 persons survived in the rough waters. Eric’s mother together with her small children was supposed to travel with this ship to Kiel. In the turmoil, when they were frantically preparing to board, she realised she had forgotten a bag with valuables and hastily returned home to fetch it, dragging the young children along. When they arrived back at the harbour the ship had sailed – and sank into the icy Baltic Sea only very few hours later. To me this looks like the first real good strike of luck in the life of Dr. Hilsenitz! 

After completing grammar school he studied medicine in Hamburg, Kiel and Lübeck, and lived and acted in the spirit of typical North German environment. His post graduate studies in various hospitals in Germany took six years until he qualified as specialist for Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine. He also added to his specialisation the field of Naturopathy, and was later licensed to train other medical doctors in this field. In 1983 he opened his own clinic in Flensburg at the German / Danish border, where not only rum and glacier water from Norway are reportedly relished in equal quantities, but also where notoriously bad and humid weather conditions prevail for most of the seasons. After seven years he sold his clinic and moved with his family to Malta.  

Why Malta? Well, during his post graduate studies he had realised that his English was not good enough to read the medical literature pertaining to his subjects, and in autumn 1979 he set out for a language course in Malta. And here he met this nice Maltese school teacher by the name of Marie Odette. At that time she was studying German at the German-Maltese Circle of which she has been a member since 1971. Decisions were made quickly, they married in 1980 in Malta and took up residence in Bavaria, where in 1981 their only son Nils was born.                        

Therefore choosing Malta after rainy Flensburg was quite “a natural step”. In Malta, Dr. Hilsenitz was offered to set up and administer a sanatorium – which project unfortunately never materialised. Hence, immediately after Marie Odette had finished her one year teaching at a private school, they moved back to Germany. Here he found a senior position at a sanatorium in the beautiful countryside of the Bayerischer Wald at the Czech border – and the family had to move again. 

“And with that move” he said in retrospect, “our nomadic life had started in earnest”. He held positions as Senior Medical Superintendent in several institutions spread over all of Germany, no position lasting for longer than two years – brand new sanatoriums, old established sanatoriums, even with a Centre of Natural Healing on a cruise liner in the Caribbean.   While in Berlin, his wife Marie Odette was offered the position of Public Relations Officer at the Maltese Embassy, where some of our readers might have met her. During this period Dr.Hilsenitz became Medical Superintendent in a Sanatorium in the Fichtelgebirge, near Bayreuth, commuting every week.  By then Dr. Hilsenitz had reached pension age and the couple moved again to Malta, to a renovated house in Valletta. 

In this house Dr. Hilsenitz runs a Centre for Natural Healing Methods, and as a licensed Naturopath he may treat patients by natural healing methods. These include herbal medicine, clinical nutrition, homeopathy, and especially relaxation techniques as well as autogenic training. He also likes to lecture on subjects like naturopathy, civilisation illnesses i.e. wrong life styles, dealing with obesity, heart problems, and the consequences of smoking.   Dr. Eric Hilsenitz too became member of the German-Maltese Circle in 1991, where he is acting as occasional discussion leader in the new series of the “Gesprächsrunden”. He is also a member of the German-Maltese Medical Society, where he gave a lecture on “Naturopathy – Its Possibilities and Limitations” some time ago. 

“The highest art”, Dr. Hilsenitz believes, “is to listen and accept every person as an individual, as he or she is”. And his advice?  “Always try to keep active and fit – and you can reach the blessed age of 100 years!”

Deutsch-Maltesische Gesellschaft e.V.
The Annual Gathering of the German-Maltese Association

Once a year members of the DMG join in for a trip to an interesting area connected to the Order of St. John sharing periods of common history. Often commanderies, fortifications or churches are still in use or can be visited. These may date far back into the 12^th century like the “Komturei” in Adenau, Rheinland-Pfalz. This commandery was presented to the Order by Count Ulrich von Are-Nürburg in 1162. (Formula I Racing Fans will raise their eyebrows!) Other places of the Order visited by the DMG are in Malta, Rhodes, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and in Germany. Obviously for reasons of distance and cost, complexes in Germany are chosen more frequently. One important item on the agenda of these trips is the Annual General Meeting of the DMG during which the passed year is reviewed, future plans are discussed, finances scrutinised and elections take place.  

As usual the planning and organising is carried out with much expertise by Bernd Schiffarth, the Mayor of Adenau and President of the DMG. This year we met in the thousand year old and very quaint city of Amberg in der Oberpfalz, about 50 km East of Nürnberg in Bavaria. The Order of St. John used Amberg for a few decades as Bavarian quarters. They made use of the former Jesuit College and the original gothic Church of St. Georg, now featuring lavish baroque decorations. These two buildings were vacated by the Order after its collapse in 1808.   

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