Zbigniew Zembrzuski, associated with the Herder Centre since the beginning of his professional career, has taken over the management of the Herder Centre at the UG. Together with the team, he is planning the Centre's jubilee and new events and activities.
At the beginning of February, prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski, Rector of the University of Gdańsk, in recognition of particular merits for the development of the University of Gdańsk, awarded the bronze Bene merito et merenti medal to the retiring dr Maria Żukowska, Head of the UG Herder Centre.
The position of Head of the Centre was taken over by mgr Zbigniew Zembrzuski, who has been associated with the Centre for many years. - 'When I was still a student of German studies, I was offered a job at the newly established Herder Centre, whose tasks included running a reading room and library of German-language books and magazines as well as a meeting place for pupils, students and Germanists,' recalls the new head of the Centre.
He stresses that the Centre has many tasks ahead of it in the immediate future, as well as an anniversary. - 'This year we will celebrate the 27th anniversary of the Herder Centre, which was established with the financial support of the Herder Foundation, whose founding father was the then President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Richard von Weizsäcker,' - Zbigniew Zembrzuski explains.
Let us recall that the main objective of the Herder Foundation was and is to support teaching and research activities in the field of German language and culture at the UG. These aims have been pursued by the Herder Centre of the UG, alongside the German philology and German section at the UG Centre for Foreign Languages. In addition, it runs German language courses at all levels in cooperation with the UG Development Foundation.
- 'Today we have a completely different situation than almost three decades ago. We try to obtain additional funds for the implementation of cultural programmes and the purchase of new materials for our library and reading room,' says Zbigniew Zembrzuski.
Last year, the Centre received over €11,000 for additional activities, which included 25 different events (workshops, competitions for young people, lectures, webinars for schools, thematic walks) attended by over 1,300 people.
As the new Manager of the Centre emphasises, a very important change affecting the Centre's perception and prestige for the University will be obtaining a licence to conduct Goethe Institute exams, for which the Centre's lecturers have been preparing course participants for years.
- 'Dr Anna Kowalewska-Mróz and I are both philologists, graduates of German studies at the University of Gdańsk, we also studied in Germany and we are both DAAD scholarship holders,' Zbigniew Zembrzuski informs. - 'We plan to conduct the first Goethe Institute exam in 2023. We are happy about this fact, the more so that the licence was held by KKNJO UG for over 20 years,' - he adds.
The Centre also intends to intensify its cooperation with both UG units connected with the German language and Gdańsk's cultural institutions (Wojewódzka Biblioteka, IKM, ECS, Günter Grass Association and others).
In addition to specific activities planned as part of the implementation of projects as far as financial possibilities allow, the new management of the Centre is in charge of a series of popular-science lectures, seminars and workshops for the academic staff of Gdańsk's universities. They will cover a wide range of topics, both linguistic and historical, history of art, culture and literature.
We look forward to new and interesting proposals from the Centre in one of the most beautiful tenement houses on ul. Ogarna, which housed the Germania Hotel before the war.