The connection is clear: a few weeks after the German police closed the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH), Iran has retaliated. On Tuesday, Iranian police shut down the Deutsche Sprachinstitut Teheran (DSIT).

In response to the Hamburg closure, Tehran had summoned the German ambassador in Tehran, Hans-Udo Muzel. Now, in return, Germany has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin, Mahmoud Farazandeh, to the Foreign Office.

‍Not officially a Goethe-Institut

The former Goethe-Institut in Tehran — along with several other international cultural institutions — was closed as early as 1987. Since then, there has been no official Goethe-Institut in Iran. Unofficially, however, the company continued. The continuation of a German language school as a successor to the Goethe-Institut had been tolerated by the regime in Tehran up until now. The Deutsches Sprachinstitut Teheran was formally founded in 1995 by the German embassy in Iran, but officially it is not part of the Goethe-Institut.

Largest German language school worldwide

The DSIT was, until its closure, the largest German cultural institution in the world in terms of student numbers, with thousands of language learners taught by 85 teachers. Interest in learning German is high, as many young Iranians appear to be seeking to leave the country and immigrate to Germany.

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Rush to the Austrian Cultural Forum

‍The Austrian Cultural Forum in Tehran, which has offered 200 courses annually since 1979, is also regularly overwhelmed by demand from Iranian students. With 16 instructors, including the country's best translators of German literature, the forum is expected to face an even greater influx following the closure of the DSIT.

There are recurring diplomatic tensions between Tehran and Berlin, including the detention of German-Iranian dual citizens in Iranian prisons. Those arrested are usually accused of espionage.

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AA demands resumption of teaching

The embassy in Tehran is calling on German nationals to leave Iran. There is a real danger that German nationals will be arbitrarily arrested, interrogated and sentenced to long prison terms. Dual nationals who hold both German and Iranian citizenship are particularly at risk. In the recent past, there have been a large number of arbitrary arrests of foreign nationals.

The Federal Foreign Office condemns the actions of the Iranian security authorities and calls on the new Iranian government to allow teaching to resume immediately.

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Red.

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