“Culture is an important language”
The Austrian Gabriela von Habsburg is Georgia’s Ambassador to Germany.
Typical of my everyday life as the Georgian Ambassador to Germany is that it is in fact untypical: I lead a multifaceted and exciting life in view of the fact that I can be active in the most diverse fields – politics, economics, culture. At the embassy we organize numerous readings, concerts and exhibitions because we regard culture as an important language for achieving closer ties between different countries. I am very familiar with German culture. I am an Austrian who grew up in Bavaria and studied art in Munich. But I have also known Georgia for some time now. My relationship with this country developed through art. In my capacity as a sculptor, I visited an exhibition there in the 1990s and was later granted Georgian citizenship for my work Rose Monument. I have had a professorship at the Art Academy in Tiflis since 2001, but due to my diplomatic obligations that post is now in abeyance. Nevertheless, art still figures prominently in my life: things are quiet on the political scene in Berlin at the weekends, so I am able to spend some time in my studio.