Welcome Address by Mrs Elaine Ng, Chief Executive Officer, National Library Board at Germany Bite-Sized Exhibition on Wednesday, 18 January 2012, 4.15pm at The Pod, National Library Building

Release Date : 18 Jan 2012

Her Excellency, Ms Angelika Viets, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Singapore

Mr Andreas Schiekhofer, Director of Goethe-Institut Singapore

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Good afternoon and welcome to the National Library Building. We are here today to bring you the Germany Bite-Sized Exhibition co-organised by Goethe-Institut Singapore and the National Library Board. We are very pleased to have Her Excellency, Ms Angelika Viets, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Singapore, grace today's event.

2. We are delighted to continue our partnership with Goethe-Institut Singapore in this exciting and creative initiative that promotes inter-cultural understanding between our countries. The ties between NLB and Goethe-Institut go back a long way. In 2004, Goethe-Institut Singapore conducted German language courses on “German Days” at some of our public libraries. We also collaborated with the German Dance Film Institute to develop a digital film database, “Dance on Demand”, featuring German dance at library@esplanade and other public libraries.

3. The Germany Bite-Sized exhibition is an interactive sculptural exhibition that presents today's Germany using entertaining, informative and interactive elements. I spent over two weeks in Germany and ate four to five sausages everyday. I already know that 'currywurst' is the most popular takeaway snack in Germany. I hope that this exhibition will, likewise, engage and inspire you to discover the richness of Germany's history and culture. Besides the exhibition, visitors can also find out more about Deutschland (pronounced as doych-lant) through a variety of programmes and learning activities. These include German film screenings, language workshops and guided tours.

4. I personally am looking forward to the film screenings as there are not many with English subtitles for German films. We are thankful to Goethe-Institut Singapore for their support. We hope you will enjoy the exhibition.