Monika Grütters, Commissioner of the German Federal Government for Culture and the Media (BKM), visited the Evangelical Church A. B. in Romania and the Transylvanian fortified church landscape on 15 April. The visit of the CDU politician took place in the run-up to meetings at ministerial level in Bucharest and was organised by deputy Ovidiu Ganț (DFDR) and Bernd Fabritius, President of the German Federation of Expelees (BdV).
Delegation at the Bishop’s Palace in Sibiu.
From left to right: Saskia Schmidt (Head of the Cultural Department of the German Embassy in Bukarest), Philipp Harfmann (Managing Director of the Fortified Churches Foundation), Reinhart Guib (Bischop of the Evangelical Church A. C. in Romania), Benjamin Józsa (Managing Director of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania), Monika Grütters (Commissioner of the German Federal Government for Culture and the Media), Ovidiu Ganț (Member of the Chamber of Deputies), Bernd Fabritius (President of the Federation of Expelees), Hans Erich Tischler (German Consul in Sibiu), Britta Bopf (Ministerial Councillor).
In the meeting, the BKM subsidies of the past years as well as the ongoing BKM-financed project of static investigations in fortified churches were discussed. Other topics were the general political situation in Romania, in the European Union, the situation of the German-speaking minority and church policy issues. For Monika Grütters this was not her first trip to Transylvania, but during this visit she had the opportunity to visit the landscape of fortified churches for the first time, which has been and still is very often supported by Mrs Grütter’s office in recent years. In addition to Sibiu, the delegation also visited Cisnădie, Cincșor and Brașov.
Text und Photo: Stefan Bichler
