A German Year called “Germany and India 2011–2012” is to take place from autumn 2011 to autumn 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Germany and India. The year will be celebrated under the motto “Germany and India: Infinite Opportunities” and aims to deepen and broaden Indo-German relations, raise the profile of Indo-German cooperation, and encourage new collaborations.
One priority topic will be “City Spaces”, which will focus on ideas to improve the quality of urban life. The comprehensive programme will primarily target an urban, education-oriented, English-speaking young Indian audience. One central element of the German Year will be a mobile unit, a space for hosting events which will function as the “face” of “Germany and India 2011–2012”. It will visit several major cities of the subcontinent, staying for about two weeks in each. The mobile unit is an interactive display area where German stakeholders from the fields of politics, business, science and culture can present themselves together under the main theme.
A Möbius strip in the colours of the two countries has been chosen as the logo of the Germany Year in India. It is a strip with only one edge and one surface – easy to make oneself by sticking together the two ends of a long strip of paper to form a ring, but with one end twisted through 180 degrees. It’s named after the German astronomer and mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius (1790–1868), who first described it in 1858.
The initiators of this series of events will be the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The project is being coordinated by the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi. The Goethe-Institut itself only recently celebrated its 50th birthday in India – from November 2009 to April 2010 – with many events all over the country covering all fields of the arts and culture.////
