Official Opening of the Stiftung Deutsch-Russischer Jugendaustausch

Hamburg, October 4, 2006

The Stiftung Deutsch-Russischer Jugendaustausch (Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange)
was officially inaugurated at Hamburg Town Hall today in the presence of German Family Affairs, Senior Citizens', Women, and Youth Minister Ursula von der Leyen, Hamburg Mayor Ole von Beust, and Russian Deputy Education and Science Minister Andrei G. Svinarenko. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to act as the patrons of the new foundation, underlining the political importance of this new partnership.

The launch of the Stiftung Deutsch-Russischer Jugendaustausch represents an important milestone in German-Russian relations. In the years ahead it will not only have a lasting positive effect on school and student exchanges between both countries. The foundation also wants to encourage greater local civic involvement. With this aim in mind, it was established as a public-private partnership. It is the first of its kind in the field of German-Russian relations. The foundation is sponsored jointly by the Hamburg Senate, the German federal government represented by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth, the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft (German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations), and Robert Bosch Stiftung.

The Russian government has also set up a coordination office in Moscow led by former Economics Minister Andrei A. Nechayev. Hamburg won the competition with other German states to host the headquarters of the new foundation. One reason was the city-state’s long-standing partnership with St. Petersburg, an alliance that celebrates its 50th anniversary next year.

The centerpiece of today's official opening at Hamburg Town Hall was a meeting with more than one hundred schoolchildren and young people from Germany and Russia who already participated in exchange programs with the foundation's assistance. "Their enthusiastic reports are the best way to overcome reservations among German parents and youth," said the foundation’s Managing Director Dr. Hans-Friedrich von Ploetz, Germany's ambassador to Russia until mid-2005.

An exhibition at Hamburg Kunsthalle in spring provided a first impression of just how imaginative and varied student and youth exchanges between Germany and Russia really are. The wonderful works by pupils of Harburg Comprehensive School and the High-School of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg were created during their respective (foundation-sponsored) visits of St. Petersburg and Hamburg. Under the motto "Zoom", the young people painted, filmed and photographed pictures of the lives of their friends in the respective other - and at first, apparently so distant - country. Von Ploetz described this as an excellent example of the purpose of intercultural youth exchange, which brings people closer to each other despite all the tragedies of the 20th century.

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