November 2022
John Kampfner

I'm John Kampfner. Journalist, broadcaster, wannabe flaneur, Germany's honorary Ambassador, and author of a particular book...

The Goethe-Institut does a phenomenal job across the world. This is 'soft power' before Joe Nye invented the term. It manages to project Germany, and all that is good about it (and the language) in a quiet way, mercifully shorn of bombast.
 
I was delighted to give its keynote lecture in December 2019 - remember the era before the lockdown? - in which I dared to set out why the Germans do things better, or rather they do many things better most of the time (though that wouldn't have been such a good title).