Keynote speaker

Ronald Grätz

The Europe of Cultures. Some Thoughts on Europe after the Nation State

Ronald Grätz was born in 1958 in São Paulo. He has been the Secretary General of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the editor of the quarterly magazine KULTURAUSTAUSCH since September 2008. He studied German language and literature, Catholic theology and philosophy at Tübingen and Frankfurt.

He was, inter alia, Deputy Director of a UNESCO project school in São Paulo, Head of cultural programmes at the Goethe-Institut Moscow, Consultant to the Board of Trustees at the head office of the Goethe-Institut Munich and Director of the Goethe-Institut in Portugal.

ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) is committed to peaceful and enriching coexistence between people and cultures worldwide. It promotes art and cultural exchange in exhibitions, dialogue and conference programmes. As a competence centre for international cultural relations, ifa connects civil societies, cultural practices, art, media and science. Ir initiates, moderates and documents discussions on international cultural relations. ifa has a global network and counts on long-term cooperation. It is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of Baden-Württemberg and its capital Stuttgart.