In the conversation in which my wife, Dr. Gabriele Goldfuss, director of the International Department of the City of Leipzig, also took part, we discussed actual and future priorities in the cooperation between our two countries and the tasks which an association like our Society should be able to initiate and shoulder.
The gift, a photo, gave him great pleasure. It shows Sayyid Haitham's father, Sayyid Tariq bin Taimur, then Prime Minister and his brother Sayyid Majid on the battlements of the Khasab Castle in the seventies.
My days in Muscat were well filled with appointments i.e. with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with former Omani ambassadors to Germany, Ministries of Education, Science, the State Archives and, of course, the German Ambassador, Thomas Schneider, who takes a lively interest in our society. He signaled strong support regarding various topics and for my planned visits later this year.
An interesting exchange of experiences developed during several visits with the curators and the artists of the Stal Gallery. Luckily, we were part of the award ceremony for the "Young Emerging Artist 2018" of the Stal Gallery. The winner receives, among others as a prize a four-week studio stay in Germany (in the former cotton mill faxtory in Leipzig, funded by the Goethe Institute. In future we will support second price winners).
In addition to the official talks, there were a number of encounters with Omani students, who have now completed their bachelor's degree in Germany and are back in Oman, as well as many ex-pats, whom I have also brought the concerns of our society.
An ongoing topic, in addition to school partnerships (exchange of students) between public German and Omani schools, alumni, cultural and museum partnerships, was also a corresponding contact or structure for our society, which we do not have and which we lack.
