The new building at 58 Ráday Street, in Budapest?s District IX, was opened by renowned Hungarian author György Konrád, who chaired the Berlin Art Academy between 1997 and 2003, Goethe Institute General Secretary Hans-Georg Knopp, and the new director of the institute in Budapest Gabriele Gauler.
The move to a new building was necessary because of rocketing rents at the institute?s Budapest base for the past ten years: a building on Andrássy Avenue, near the Opera House, according to Márta Nagy, who heads the institute?s cultural department.
The Goethe Institute is renting four floors of the seven-storey building, allowing plenty of room to accommodate its cultural and language-teaching activities. The ?Eckermann Café?, a social centre for the centre?s visitors, is located on the ground floor, next to the library. The first floor has a space for events ? all held in both German and Hungarian, the second floor has rooms for language learning, and the institute?s offices are located on the third floor.
The building?s glass exterior and green inner courtyard give it a younger and more modern feel, and serve the institute?s aim to reach out to a wider audience, Nagy said. She added that the institute would form partnerships with galleries and bookshops in the neighbourhood and become involved in events organised in Ráday Street, which has become one of the capital?s new centres for culture.
The Goethe Institute has acquired an outstanding reputation in Budapest, and in 2002, the City Council awarded it the ?For Budapest? prize.
