I met Ronald Gratz as a result of his connections with Nedena, an association of young German entrepreneurs based in Barcelona, and now linked to the Circle of German-Speaking Executives (KDF). Then, shortly after, I was able to take him to a jazz session at Jazzman to see the virtuosity of Pere Ferré, with his wife Montserrat. From there I learned of his desire to make a book (a voluminous and high-quality book) that would be a declaration of love from the German community towards Barcelona. A seal, an enduring and meaningful object.
This book was recently presented at the Frankfurt fair and now, in October, its existence has been celebrated in Barcelona. Coinciding with the unfortunate news of Gratz's farewell, he was the first to speak as host. "Since we are at the Goethe, I will continue in German," he said in his perfect Catalan.
"Europe, nor Spain, cannot be understood without Catalonia." To begin, he said this, while some of us used the translator in our ear, but he also gave infinite thanks to the entire team of the Goethe Institut. And after the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dirk Rotenberg, reviewed the long career of the book's editor, and offered him some gifts from the Regional Director of the Goethe, Elke Kaschi (among them, an intergalactic Snowy), and even after the turn of the director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Pere Almeda, the outgoing director was able to point out a few more things: he said that retirement resembles joy, he said that the search for understanding between Catalonia and Germany was also a search for the culture of peace, and he mentioned that anecdote in which Kennedy asked a garbage collector in Cape Canaveral what he was doing there, to which the garbage collector replied: "We are taking man to the Moon." When the activity you do amuses you, it always turns out well, he added. And hence the result of the book that has been published. For him, for the Institut, for the Germans. Yes, there are expats who take strong root and even become one of us.
Lameba is a declaration of sincere love: I don't know of any other foreign community that makes editions like this.Lameba is a wordplay between La meva and Barcelona, evidently, and it is a large book, a luxury edition, with the collaboration of important figures in Barcelona and from the German community of the city. Pere Almeda, director of the Institut Ramon Llull; the tenor Josep Carreras; the delegate of the Government in Germany, Marie Kapretz; the delegate in Central Europe, Krystyna Schreiber; the director of Nedena, Denis Gloger; the journalist and film critic Conxita Casanovas; the professor Lourdes Cirlot; the composer Ferran Cruixent; the director of the Catalunya Cultura Foundation, Maite Esteve; the artistic director of the TNC, Carme Portaceli; the former director of the Filmoteca and professor Esteve Riambau; the former president Carles Puigdemont; the director of the delegation of the German Chamber of Commerce for Spain in Barcelona, Almudena Sánchez; the architect Benedetta Tagliablue; the writer Vicenç Villatoro; dozens of Catalan and German names that would make this article too long... and also myself, write.
Each one makes their portrait, accompanied by the professional portraits of the photographers who inspire the texts, of undeniable beauty, but above all with unprecedented visual perspectives. A book to have on the coffee table, to display, to contemplate, to read and to feel. As we said, a sincere declaration of love: I don't know any other foreign community that neither makes editions like this, nor celebrates events like this, nor has people as close and sensitive as this.
When the event ends, the former director of the KDF Albert Peters and the current director, Oliver Wiethaus, talk to me about the future, about politics, about business, about Madrid. They move between an undisguised passion and business prudence, especially in virtue of whether they still have to be careful with what they say. Even the new director of the Goethe, who will be Joachim Bernauer (until now in the Italian delegation), assures that, although he thought he would need the Catalan translator, he finally understood everything without the need for any gadget. A promising sign, no doubt. And it is that whoever does not know (or does not want to) connect with the city, sets up artificial inventions, and whoever connects, connects.