October 11-15, 2010 the German Days (Deutsche Tage) were held in the city of Taganrog for the second time since August 2002. The project was realized by the Taganrog Teachers College and was supported by the German Embassy in Moscow, the DAAD, Goethe Institute and Taganrog Local Government.
"Life is too short to learn German" - with that quote of Richard Porson started her speech at the closing of Deutsche Tage-2010 on Oct.15, 2010 Mrs. Irina Golubeva, President of the Taganrog Teachers College. "If the British classicist had an opportunity to visit the events held throughout the city and its numerous educational institutions, talk to native speakers of German, he would have a different opinion on the subject."
The program of Deutsche Tage-2010 featured several exhibitions dedicated to personalities of German descent in the history of Taganrog, German sister cities, etc; a concert given by the Russian-German friendship society Wiedergeburt-T (Das Russisch-Deutsche Haus "Wiedergeburt-T"), student conference "Works of Chekhov in German translation", a concert of German classic music by the Municipal Orchestra directed by Alexander Gurevich and German rock music concert by the band "Russkiy Knyaz", the play "Achtung, Minen" (P. Dürr) staged by the Deutsches Theater (Berlin, Germany), a concert by the Municipal Choir "Lik", reading of "Ostberliner Treppengespräche" (the last book published in GDR) by Judit Merkuschew (teacher from
Lüdenscheid) and book's author Christian Ewald, several student conferences and many more.
A special highlight was the performance of the program in German "Through the German Lands" ("Durch die Länder Deutschlands"), which was a joint effort by the schools of the city and smaller towns around Taganrog.
The Deutsche Tage-2010 united all the people interested in German culture, history and language: teachers, school and college students from educational institutions of Taganrog and the neighboring towns.
The Deutsche Tage-2010 were closed on October 15. Dr. Axel Stockmann from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany was delegated by the Ambassador to participate in the event. In his speech, Dr. Stockmann highlighted the importance of strengthening cultural and educational exchanges and expressed hope for further cooperation. After the ceremony, the representative of the German Embassy was received by the first vice-mayor Alexander Kuryanov and visited city's tourist attractions - Birth House of Anton Chekhov, Chekhov Gymnasium Literary Museum, Chekhov Library, Tchaikovsky House, Alferaki Palace and Taganrog Museum of Art.
