“Komitas a trailblazer in German-Armenian relations”

· April 1, 2025

Speech by President of Germany in Yerevan

At a cultural reception at the Komitas Museum-Institute in the Armenian capital Yerevan, Federal President Steinmeier emphasized the close ties between Germany and Armenia.

When a German Federal President stands in the Armenian capital and recites odes to spring penned in his home country, then two things must be true. Spring is indeed here. And we are probably at the Komitas Museum-Institute, where German poetry very much has its place. This poem by Theodor Storm, which has been translated into English for the present occasion, is in fact titled April, so we are just a little ahead of schedule. It is among the German works that Komitas set to music during his studies in Berlin, along with others by Theodor Storm and by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The songs are powerful evidence of this most famous Armenian composer’s connection with Western verse as well as music, from Franz Schubert to Richard Strauss.

Komitas is considered the father of Armenian music. A priest as well as a composer, he embodies like no other this Biblical land between Asia and Europe, a country shaped by a millennia-old culture that is at once Eastern and Christian, marked by a history full of suffering, persecution and exile. In Komitas’ works, so they say, sings the soul of the Armenian people. His life story is closely intertwined with the story of his country.

And he had a close connection to my country, too. His ties to Berlin make Komitas a trailblazer in German-Armenian relations in the fields of culture, religion and academia. And so we could not have chosen a better place to pay tribute to our cultural relations – many thanks for your hospitality this evening!

There will very soon be yet another place here in Yerevan where we can breathe life into the cultural relations between our countries, where the German-Armenian friendship has a home. The conversion of the existing Goethe-Zentrum into a Goethe-Institut has been decided and the opening is firmly planned for this year.

We are all delighted by this, and I strongly believe that the Goethe-Institut will make our cultural relations even stronger. There is already a great deal of interest in German as a foreign language, as well as in academic cooperation, in Armenia. This is reflected not least in almost 50 bilateral university cooperation arrangements. For young Armenians, Germany is the second most popular study destination. No doubt that is in part thanks to our town and city twinning schemes. In any case, I would not be surprised if more Armenian students from Yerevan were soon to be found here and there around Leipzig University.