Partner regions
Political discussions, musical performances, delicious specialities – learn all about the citizens’ festival partner regions: Thuringia and the Czech Republic,
together with the German-Czech Future Fund.
Thuringia
In the largely rural Free State of Thuringia, civic engagement plays a very particular role. More than a third of the entire population of Thuringia does voluntary work. Voluntary civic engagement is a cornerstone of our civil society – diverse and valuable. Das freiwillige bürgerschaftliche Engagement ist ein Kernstück unserer Zivilgesellschaft – vielfältig und wertvoll. It is therefore a great honour to be at the citizens’ festival as a partner region and have the opportunity to show visitors the diversity of the Free State of Thuringia.
Visitors to the citizens’ festival will be able to explore Thuringia’s strengths as a travel destination with sweeping vistas, forests, lakes and rivers for rest and relaxation far away from tourist hotspots – where the journey is the destination. Admire breathtaking natural treasures and pose in front of them for a photo.
Thuringia is where the significant art and design school Bauhaus was originally founded, and festival visitors will be able to learn about major Bauhaus artists who shaped design history. Meanwhile, the drawing machine ILLUMAT will delight visitors by illustrating whatever their hearts desire.
Thuringia will also be bringing shows from the children’s TV channel KiKA to the stage. The young and young-at-heart can enjoy appearances by KiKA stars such as Bernd das Brot, watch the KiKANiNCHEN show or dance along to KiKA TanzAlarm.
Out-of-the-ordinary cuisine from Thuringia: a 150-metre-long original Thüringer Rostbratwurst lovingly grilled over glowing charcoal, and the “pot of 1000 dumplings”.
The OktoPLUS ensemble from the Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach will provide musical accompaniment along with the local band Brise Manouche.
The partner region of Thuringia looks forward to welcoming you!
Wartburg Thüringen
© CzechTourism, Libor Sváček
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic will be the partner country at the citizens’ festival, with stands that will inspire new discoveries and new friendships. Visitors to the citizens’ festival can win prizes in a country quiz, learn Czech words in a taster language class, sample Bohemian kolache and enter an authentic fairytale world.
Particularly in today’s conflict-ridden world, it’s important to have reliable partners who we can develop new visions, preserve established traditions, defend liberal values and overcome fears about the future with.
Ordinary people from both sides of the border have long proven that they can be reliable partners in good times and bad. Thanks to their commitment, German-Czech relations have a rock-solid foundation that will serve them well as they continue to develop in the future. They are not just abstract strategy, but everyday reality. That is good news for our countries, for the Central European region and for all of Europe.
“We are proud to be celebrating the anniversary of a joint project: our German-Czech Future Fund is turning 25 years old. The Future Fund makes civic engagement and neighbourly cooperation even more fun!”
Tomáš Kafka, Czech Ambassador
German-Czech Future Fund
The German-Czech Future Fund has been supporting joint cross-border initiatives for 25 years. Its aim is for the people of both countries to get to know and understand each other more closely, and be inspired to actively help shape a neighbourhood that feels like home and can serve as a role model for coexistence in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Germans and Czechs have already met in this way.
“Our major source of potential in Germany, the Czech Republic and Europe is our lively civil societies,” according to Petra Ernstberger and Tomáš Jelínek, the directors of the German- Czech Future Fund. „Our German-Czech foundation has been working for 25 years to strengthen these civil societies and build up the links between them – with the aim of creating a stable basis of mutual trust for our coexistence as neighbours in Europe. We would like to use the citizens’ festival to pay tribute to everyone who works so tirelessly together with us towards this aim.“
Petra Ernstberger/Tomáš Jelínek
(directors of the German-Czech Future Fund)
In the garden of Schloss Bellevue, visitors to the citizens’ festival will be able to see for themselves how diverse, creative and inspiring the neighbourly relations between Germany and the Czech Republic already are – and how much fun they can be. Interactive dance, music and theatre performances, debates, readings and workshops are all part of the Future Fund’s exciting programme, as well as talking poetry machines and German-Czech football tricks. On top of that, relevant civil-society players in German-Czech relations will be introducing themselves. And of course there will be plenty of culinary specialities from Germany’s next-door neighbour, not to mention plenty of Czech beer!
Come along and see for yourselves – you won’t regret it!
© Jan Vidlička
