The students and employees of the Goethe Institut have not said their last word. When, in the torpor of summer, they learned that the courses and exams that the German cultural center would not continue at the start of the school year and that they would only take place online, resistance set in. The return to the institute was done on the hats of wheels. Employees and students massively sent letters to various elected officials, French and German. Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse, has also recently supported the students in a letter he sent them. “I share your surprise and your disappointment since the announcement of this information”, wrote the ‘elected.

A petition, filed on the online platform change.org, to safeguard the teaching of German within the Goethe Institut has retained more than 3,000 signatures. And during the open door operation of the German cultural center, which took place on September 10, dozens of people reached rue Clémence Isaure.

The sale of the building concerned

In recent weeks, the opposition has accelerated further. A three-page missive was sent to the management of the Goethe Institut in Munich. In the letter, the Toulouse branch recalled the consequences of such a decision, in particular the dismissal of 7 employees. The German cultural center in Toulouse also indicated that it was “one of the few in the country to be rented”. Another letter was sent to the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, “so that he is aware of this arbitrary decision”, explains an employee of the Goethe Institut in the Pink City.

But according to him, the fate of the German cultural center would be run in advance. The management of the group would have indicated to the Parisian branch that cultural activities would also cease and, in the long term, the building would be sold.