Iran at a Glance

• Population: 68.6 million


• Capital city: Teheran, approx. 14 million inhabitants


• Language: Official Language Farsi (Persian), aside Turkic Language, Kurdish, Arabic et al.


• Religions: Over 98% Muslims, aside Christians, Jews et al.


• Form of government: Islamic Republic

Economy

Relations between Germany and Iran go back a long way. As long ago as 1819, Goethe dedicated his West-East Divan to Hafez, the great Persian poet, whose work he admired. The poem has remained a point of reference for East-West understanding to this day.

Trade relations between Germany and Iran have been on the uptrend for some years now. Iran is already the most important market for German enterprises in the whole of the Middle East. The main exports remain machinery, motor vehicles and parts, hardware and metal products as well as chemical products. Iranian exports to Germany also increased by 20.4% in 2005 compared with 2004. The major export goods were carpets, foodstuffs and mineral oil. An investment law and a bilateral promotion and protection accord regulate investments.

Culture and Science

In addition to the German Embassy in Tehran, there is the German Archaeological Institute, the German Embassy School, the German Language Institute (DSIT) and, since the autumn of 2003, a German Academic Exchange Service teacher for German as a foreign language. There is also a Protestant parish with a German pastor. Cooperation between Germany and Iran in scientific and academic exchange has traditionally been good. An entire generation of Iranian scientists and scholars have been educated at German higher education institutions, who are professors today and are engaged in promoting joint research projects and working at stepping up cooperation at university level. One important milestone was the signing of a partnership agreement between the Aachen-Jülich University of Applied Sciences and Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, which paved the way for a diploma course in mechanical engineering as of autumn 2003.

Exchange in the theatre world plays a central role in German-Iranian cultural relations: The German director Anja Gronau took part in the Fadjr Cultural Festival in 2006 with her production, “Johanna”, the Nürnberg theatre with “Eric Satie”, the Marienbad Theatre with one other production, as did the German-Iranian director A. Kousk Jalali with his production “La Strada”. Another highlight of the German cultural programme was the German festival in Tehran in November 2005.

Besides the promotion of scientific relations and the cultural programme, German as a foreign language is another focus of German cultural and education policy in Iran. The German Embassy’s Language Institute in Tehran teaches approx. 3,600 language students a year.

Links

www.teheran.diplo.de (German Embassy in Iran)
www.dihk-ir.com (Irano-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce)
www.dasan.de/ds_teheran (German Embassy school Teheran)