“Franco-German Perspectives in Dialog” is a format with which the newly established “Network of university centers for French and Francophone studies in Germany” draws attention to itself.
The network of university centers for French and Francophone studies in Germany is a group of currently nine academic centers that are committed to strengthening Franco-German university cooperation at the universities of Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Freiburg, Leipzig, Mainz, Saarbruecken, and Stuttgart as well as at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences.
The centers have different priorities: While some are running their own Franco-German study programs or French language courses, others are more concerned with project-related networking and cooperation (also with partners from the French-speaking culture area), and still others are pursuing their own scientific research program. All centers have in common that, beyond their academic mission, they also define themselves as forums for Franco-German-European dialog in politics and society and regularly organize events on current topics.
Under the title “Franco-German Interactions”, the DVA Foundation promoted exchanges between French scientists and scientists from the University of Stuttgart between 1989 and 2019. The establishment of the IZKT gave rise to the France focus initiated and funded by the DVA Foundation, which coordinated the joint work and presented it to the public. The office of the France focus provided information on all activities at the University of Stuttgart that were related to France, and published the brochure “Franco-German Interactions” at the beginning of each semester.
The France focus was supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation with funds from the DVA Foundation.
Publication: “30 Years of Franco-German Interactions at the University of Stuttgart” [DE]
On a joint initiative of the Italian Cultural Institute in Stuttgart and the Department of Romance Literatures II at the University of Stuttgart, the Italy Center was founded in 2006. On 8/3/2006, it was officially established within the framework of a cooperation agreement between the Embassy of the Republic of Italy, the University of Stuttgart, and the state capital Stuttgart.
The kick-off event of the Italy Center was the international conference “Germany and Italy in Europe” in the fall of 2006. In May 2007, the symposium “New Perspectives on Leonardo da Vinci” was added to the center’s list of events.
It was inaugurated on November 22, 2008 in the presence of the Minister President of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Günther H. Oettinger, the Ambassador of the Republic of Italy, Antonio Puri Purini, and the Mayor of the City of Stuttgart, Wolfgang Schuster.
Numerous projects and events took place at the Italy Center in 2019, such as
- a project of bilateral cooperation between the Province of Bergamo and the District of Ludwigsburg / the Stuttgart region (2013-2014),
- “Mount Vesuvius in the Mirror of Literature and Art” (2010),
- “100 Years of Futurism”, “Art, Technology, Speed and Innovation at the Beginning of the 20th Century” (2009).
The year 2018 marked the centenary of the end of World War I, “the great seminal catastrophe of the 20th century” (George F. Kennan) - a special date not only in the Franco-German context. It was the IZKT’s initiative to bundle the events commemorating the end of the World War in Stuttgart and the twin city of Strasbourg and to launch a “Stuttgart Program” under the patronage of the mayor of the state capital. In a hitherto unique way, we brought together the numerous projects of a total of 20 cultural institutions and created a program brochure and a homepage.
The “Franco-German interactions” contributed significantly to the “Stuttgart Program”: At several events - panel discussions and an exhibition - we reflected on the long-term cultural impact of the war, its epochal character, and the long-time political, literary, and intellectual implications that continue to this day.
Within the framework of the program, Minister President Winfried Kretschmann and the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy talked about the question of what a culture of peace might look like that draws the most radical conclusions imaginable from the experience of World War I. This exchange between a philosophically interested head of government from Germany and a politically interested philosopher from the twin city of Strasbourg received great feedback from the public.