Hermitage Garden September festival to mark German year in Russia

MOSCOW, June 20 (Itar-Tass) - A year of German language and literature in Russia will open with a festival in Moscow's Hermitage Garden on September 13, German culture office the Goethe Institut told Itar-Tass on Friday. An open German lesson will start the festival, while famous German and Russian writers and artists will give lectures on topical cultural issues in Germany. The garden will also welcome book-lovers and hearty eaters with a fair and samples of German cuisine. The youngest guests will learn German through playing in open lessons, taking part in theatrical and artistic master classes and contests, immersing themselves in the fairy-tale world with entertainers invited from Germany. "Language is the important condition for contacts between our nations, for them to get acquainted and learn to understand each other, thus creating mutual trust,” the institute's press office quoted ambassador to Russia Rüdiger von Fritsch-Seerhausen as saying. The cross-cultural year will be marked with a contest to select the Best Teacher of German in Russia and prizes for best translators from the German language. Goethe Institut plans mobile teaching forums in Russia, a German language-student competition, an education conference in Kaliningrad and an international youth environmental project in the first half of 2015. Learn more on itar-tass.com