What an incredible 11-day week it has been. Brisbane German Week 2019 was a major success – thanks to you! Our enjoyable and engaging series of events covered the ever-growing relationship between Australia and Germany. With record numbers at all events, each of the nine event days provided rich insights and opportunities to nurture and grow networks socially, professionally and culturally.

We kicked off BGW 2019 with Brisbane’s German Story – an excursion to Nundah with the Brisbane Greeters, where the first German settlers began to create the foundation of a long-lasting Queensland-Germany relationship. German History Day at the Brisbane German Club picked up the history of these settlers and featured as a highlight a conversation with Günter Wetzel who reflected on 40 years since his dramatic escape from the East German regime in a hot air balloon.

The highlight of week one has been, without a doubt, our concert reception in celebration of the Day of German Unity. The stunning facilities of the brand-new Mercedes-Benz Autohaus in Brisbane attracted more than 340 guests who enjoyed an outstanding performance by the Adina String Quartet (QSO) and solo flutist Sally Walker. The audience witnessed the very first appearance of the newly formed German Youth Choir for the national anthems.

The last event of week one and incorporated for the first time, we included the German Literature Evening featuring inspirational conversations with three incredible women. In partnership with the Goethe-Institut Australia and Brisbane Square Library it was a most fascinating evening.

Week two started with the launch of the annual German Language Competition. With support from the worldwide PASCH-network the competition was expanded to include participants around the world for the first time. More than 1,200 students took part and the results were revealed at Oktoberfest for Teens.

At the 4^th German Business Day attendees explored the significance and status of trust management. We are grateful to SAP and Austral Volkswagen for their invaluable support. Equally popular was the 4^th Australian-German Science and Innovation Day at Customs House. At the booked-out event, participants discussed the status of scientific relationships between our two countries.

We next joined the Brisbane International Film Festival for their special German Week Screening ‘O Beautiful Night’  in German with English subtitles and other surprises. And what better way to end Brisbane German Week than celebrating together with our community the opening of the 12^th Oktoberfest Brisbane “Anzapfen”.

It was a pleasure and an honour to greet you personally in such high numbers at Brisbane German Week this year and we very much look forward to seeing you all again in October 2020!

Tschüss und bis bald, Michael, Claudia and the entire Brisbane German Week team.