Week-long activities to shed light on work of German institutions in Jordan

AMMAN — “German Week 2015”, starting on May 4, will give Jordanians the opportunity to become acquainted with the work of the many German institutions present in Jordan, and a taste of Germany.

Organised for the first time last year as a one-time event,  “German weeks” elicited such response that the one-off experience is repeated this year, promising to become a yearly occurrence, according to organisers.

Speaking to The Jordan Times before the start of the week-long activities, Federal Republic of Germany’s Ambassador to Jordan Ralf Tarraf said “Jordan is one of a few countries in the world” to have so many German institutions present, doing work and partnering with local entities.

“We, Germans, have here something unique because we have a big number of German organisations from the public sector that work in their respective fields with their Jordanian partners, not under the umbrella of the embassy but on their own.”

Many Jordanians are acquainted with the Goethe Institute, for example, but few would have heard of the Centre for Environmental Research and even fewer of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources whose members have been in the Kingdom for 50 years, quietly mapping out water sources and monitoring the water situation, in possession of an important database in the field.

German Week will give those interested the opportunity to get to know the nature of these institutions’ work, at times with a twist. Like the fact that a political foundation, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, lent its support to actors from Maan who will perform a play about elections and political participation during the week, written especially for the occasion.

Or that Goethe Institute, better known for offering German language classes, has partnerships with schools in the Kingdom (three for now) that teach German, and that the Centre for Environmental Research offers “water fun action” in Fuheis.

Then, there are German institutions that work in archaeology, energy and in the field of humanitarian assistance; six political foundations that have permanent staff in Jordan and organise public debates and awareness campaigns, assist political institutions in their work, including Parliament and the Constitutional Court, and work in the field of political reform; and several NGOs.

The government body German Federal Agency for Technical Relief built the water infrastructure in the Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps.

“All these institutions create a dense network of partnership in Jordan. Each institution has its partners” and links, which makes their contribution more intense, and effective, than if they were to meet only occasionally, the ambassador said.

And they are all “committed” to contribute to German Week with activities, so “one gets to know them and also experience some fun activities”, according to the envoy.

Taking pride of place among the institutions showcased this year will be the German-Jordanian University (GJU), which marks its 10th anniversary. 

Having made a name for itself in all this time, GJU, from which 1,600 students graduated so far, is “unique, different from all other” institutions of higher education, Tarraf said, because students have to spend one year in Germany, in the course of their studies, thus getting exposed to the German language and culture in a more effective way.

To make that possible, the university has a network of 80 other universities where visiting students study, and a “huge number” of industrial partners; in other words, “a huge infrastructure of people of Germany who are committed to the German-Jordanian University”.

German Week’s activities are spread from Irbid to Karak, passing through Amman and Madaba, giving a large number of Jordanians the opportunity to attend and become familiarised with the work of the German institutions.

Why so many German organisations in Jordan?

“Because Jordanians are extremely good partners and it is possible to link up with Jordanian partners because political conditions are conducive to such partnerships,” the ambassador said.

But also because they are “very much welcomed by the leadership of the country, which appreciates” their work, because of the people’s and the leadership’s “readiness to engage with us” and because of the “stability of the country”.

Programme details

For more information on event timings and locations visit 

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