The Goethe-Zentrum, located in the capital of Kerala and home to Germany’s language center and Honorary Consulate, was officially opened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Speaking on the occasion following the Thursday evening lamp lighting at the new building at D-9 Jawahar Nagar, Vijayan said that the Basel Mission’s arrival in Kozhikode in the 19th century marked the beginning of Kerala’s relationship with Germany. This mission made a significant contribution to the Malabar region’s advancement in the fields of education, industry, and social transformation.
He also mentioned Hermann Gundert’s efforts in this regard, since he wrote the Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam, a treatise on Malayalam grammar.
The chief minister stated that Goethe-Zentrum, which was established in Thiruvananthapuram and later in Kochi, became the official partner to provide German language training to these candidates following the signing of the Triple Win Agreement between India and the German Federal Employment Agency in December 2021 to recruit 1,500 nurses from Kerala.
He was pleased to hear that 30,000 applicants took the Goethe-Certificate test at these two Keralan locations.
According to a statement issued here on Friday, the chief minister is quoted as stating that Kerala has therefore emerged as the first state in India to work directly with Germany to facilitate the fair and morally sound migration of human resources.
Vijayan remembered the talks he had with the state administration about strengthening connections during the German Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil’s July visit to Thiruvananthapuram.
Dignitaries such as MP Shashi Tharoor, Kerala Chief Secretary Venu V, German Consul General and Regional Director of the Goethe-Institut (South Asia) Achim Burkart, and Mayor Arya Rajendran attended the inauguration event.
Over the course of its fifteen-year existence, the Zentrum in the city has been an integral member of the global network of the Goethe-Institut, Germany’s national language and cultural institution.
The Indo-German Language and Cultural Society, led by G Vijaya Raghavan, a former member of the Kerala Planning Board, is in charge of its management.