November 2022
Paul Smith

I’m Paul Smith, Director of the British Council in Germany. We work very closely with our good friends and ever-enthusiastic collaborators at the Goethe-Institut in the UK as well as with colleagues at the Goethe-Institut headquarters in Munich.

Perhaps not my favourite memory but currently sadly so pertinent: When I was Director of the British Council in the USA, I worked closely with my friend and peer, Wilfred Eckstein, Director of the Goethe-Institut in the US. In particular, we designed a series of public seminars and events on the theme of censorship and freedom of speech. One event in 2016, which I chaired at the New York University campus in Washington DC, was a public lecture on these topics by Salman Rushdie. His lecture was robust and his response to hard questioning was immensely gracious and honest. The recent images from Chautauqua resonate with a horrific déjà vu.
 
Without the Goethe-Institut London, I would lose my most like-minded professional friends in taking forward inventive projects to address important world issues.
 
In 2037 (the year of the 75th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut London), I will visit the Goethe-Institut London and give three celebratory cheers and then collapse on a recliner in the library as I will be 81 years old.

My favourite aspect of British-German cultural exchange is the absolute commitment by professionals, institutions and people in our two countries to knowing that a more peaceful, stable and constructive world can be best produced and navigated by enthusiastic cultural exchange, co-production and solidarity.

When I think about the 60s in Germany, the first thing that springs to mind is the wall that existed at the back of the Hof of the Berlin flat in which I live and which, wonderfully, no longer exists.