After a year of renovation, Goethe-Institut Jakarta is welcoming audiences back with an Opening Week running from October 31 to November 8, 2026. Across 13 events, film, music, theatre, exhibitions and discussions are returning to its Menteng premises, renewing a familiar meeting place for Indonesian and German cultural exchange.
A Safer Space, Ready for New Encounters
The reopening follows improvements designed to make the building safer for visitors, students and employees, with particular attention to fire safety. German-language courses, examinations and the library have resumed operations, while GoetheHaus is returning to its role as a venue for performances and conversations.
“After a year without events at GoetheHaus, we are delighted to see this place come alive again—as a space for culture, the exchange of ideas, creativity and encounters,” said Constanze Michel, Director of Goethe-Institut Indonesien.
Located on Jalan Sam Ratulangi 9–15, the institute’s return brings together two closely connected purposes: helping Indonesians learn German and providing a public space where artists, students and audiences can explore ideas together.
Jakarta’s Stories Meet German Perspectives
The programme places Indonesian experiences alongside international conversations. Opening on November 2 and continuing until November 30, Living Knowledge Lab presents photographic stories created by young people from Greater Jakarta. Their work examines sustainability through observations of their own neighbourhoods, bringing environmental questions into the scale of everyday life.
On November 3 at 6 p.m., philosopher Simon Petrus Lili Tjahjadi and writer Dhianita Kusuma Pertiwi will explore the Frankfurt School and the continuing relevance of critical theory.
The following evening, November 4 at 6.30 p.m., a screening of Fatherland will be accompanied by a discussion featuring cultural scholar Melani Budianta and filmmaker Riri Riza. Through Thomas Mann’s return to Germany after World War II, the programme opens a conversation about home, national identity and historical memory.
Another exhibition, A Bite of Berlin, runs from November 5 to 29. Sukma Smita and Sigit Darmawan Pratama revisit their encounters with Berlin through images, materials and spatial interventions, inviting Jakarta audiences to experience the city through Indonesian perspectives.
Music and Theatre Return to the Stage
On November 6 at 7.30 p.m., SIMAKDIALOG will mark the return of the Alur Bunyi music programme to GoetheHaus. Performing GONG, an interpretation of Riza Arshad’s work, the group’s new formation brings together progressive contemporary jazz and traditional influences.
The November 7 programme moves from an afternoon conversation to an evening performance. At 2 p.m., Between the Mountain and the Sea brings together residency artists Mutia Bunga and Ayomi Amindoni with Arka Kinari’s Raka Ibrahim and Rassi Narika to discuss maritime narratives, memories of nature and island communities.
At 7 p.m., Haifa Marwan’s documentary theatre work Indonesian Dreams combines storytelling, archives, live video and multimedia to examine how history shapes memory and ideas of home. On November 8 at 7 p.m., Riyadhus Shalihin’s Power to Powder traces connections between natural resources and beauty products, following materials from extraction to their transformation into objects of aesthetic value.
Language Learning Opens Further Doors
Opening Week began with KarriereKompass 2026 on October 31, offering presentations, questions and answers, and consultation stands about living, studying and working in Germany.
This practical dimension rests on an established educational network. Goethe-Institut Jakarta’s institutional profile reports more than 5,000 German-language learners annually and identifies 29 PASCH partner schools across Indonesia, where more than 13,000 students learn German. These are institutional figures, rather than a five-year cumulative total.
Recent cooperation also extends beyond the institute’s walls. In May 2026, Goethe-Institut and Indonesia’s National Library signed a cooperation agreement, with an initial contribution of 287 titles for the German collection and plans to expand and update it over five years. German Ambassador Ralf Beste attended the signing.
Academic exchange offers another measure of those connections. More than 120 former scholarship holders attended DAAD’s Jakarta alumni gathering in May 2025, marking the regional office’s 35th anniversary. Addressing that separate event, then German Ambassador Ina Lepel emphasised alumni’s role in connecting education, research and politics, according to DAAD’s account.
With its classrooms, library and stage active again, Goethe-Institut Jakarta offers several ways to reconnect: through a language lesson, a photographic story, a performance or a conversation. Opening Week ends on November 8, but its two exhibitions extend the invitation well into the month.
