The Interdisciplinary Center for German Studies will have three main tasks in the future: First, it will coordinate all academic activities dealing with Latvian-German cultural relations in the past and present. Second, the center will help meet the increased demand for German teachers in Latvia. Latvia will introduce German as a second foreign language in schools and universities in the 2026/27 school year, which will require new teaching programs and young teachers. The German Foreign Office is responding to this development and has designated Latvia as a pilot country for the promotion of German teacher training, which will benefit the center in the form of support from the DAAD. Thirdly, the center's work is intended to extend far beyond the academic world: “It should not only promote German-Latvian academic cooperation, but also provide a platform for German-Baltic relations as a whole,” says Prof. Dr. Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile, who initiated and played a key role in shaping the long-standing partnership with the University of Riga on behalf of the University of Potsdam. “The center is working with the Latvian Embassy in Berlin and other partners to expand knowledge transfer to other areas such as culture, business, and technology. In this way, it can serve as a bridge for international scientific and cultural cooperation,” emphasizes the Germanist, who has now been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Academic Senate of the University of Latvia for his services to German-Latvian cooperation.
The new center builds on a cooperation between the Potsdam Institute for German Studies and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Riga that has been in place since 2015. This cooperation was made possible by strategic university partnerships in the Erasmus program and with the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In January 2025, both sides joined forces with the University of Tartu in Estonia to form a German Studies Institute Partnership, which is funded by the DAAD as a tripartite partnership. With the establishment of the new center, which is structurally based at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Riga, this long-standing cooperation is now being taken to a new level and further intensified.
Photos:
2025_066_University-of-Latvia_Toms Grinbergs_University of Latvia: New campus of the University of Latvia. Photo: Toms Grinbergs/University of Latvia
2025_066_Center1_Toms Grinbergs_University of Latvia: Prof. Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile at the opening of the Germany Center in Riga. Photo: Toms Grinbergs/University of Latvias
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Iwan-Michelangelo D’Aprile, Institute of German Studies, University of Potsdam
Email: iwan-michelangelo.daprileuuni-potsdampde
Phone: 0331/977-1199
Mediainformation 30-06-2025 / No. 066