Exhibition on German & Russian stereotypes in Schloss Charlottenburg / Free entrance for Berlin school groups

Berlin. Balalaikas and beer mugs, drunkenness and punctuality, wild Cossacks and fascist beasts – numerous stereotypes over the last 200 years have contributed to the image Germans and Russians have of each other. Russia’s image in Germany is still shaped by many prejudices and clichés even today – and vice versa. The exhibition “Our Russians – Our Germans. Images of the Other Side. 1800 – 2000” in Berlin’s Schloss Charlottenburg, a cooperation of the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst and the National Historical Museum in Moscow, takes a look back at the history of German and Russian stereotypes. Selected objects from Russian and German collections such as paintings, posters, photos and objects from daily life will be on view. “Our Russians – Our Germans” is under the patronage of the German and Russian Foreign Ministers, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sergej W. Lawrow, and is sponsored by WINGAS GmbH. The company is offering thousands of Berlin school students the opportunity to visit the exhibition, which is on until 2 March 2008. After that it will be on show in Moscow.

German-Russian energy company WINGAS has launched an education partnership together with the Berlin Senate and the federal and regional associations of Russian and history teachers that allows Berlin school classes free entrance to the museum. The company is offering a “school class ticket” available immediately which allows a whole school class accompanied by a teacher free entrance to the exhibition. “With its proximity to Eastern Europe and thus also to Russia, Berlin plays the role of an intermediary between East and West”, Klaus Wowereit, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, explained. “A visit to this exhibition adds a practical component to Russian and history lessons”, Mr. Wowereit said in praise of the initiative.

WINGAS Chairman Dr. Rainer Seele explained why his company had formed this education partnership. “We want to contribute to an improved mutual understanding between Russians and German. The exhibition represents a good opportunity to do this. For even though Russia is practically on our doorstep, at the moment the public’s view of Russia is characterized by a great deal of uncertainty. That’s why that we and the State of Berlin are pleased to be able to invite our capital city’s school students to the exhibition”.

The offer is especially aimed at the more than 4000 Berlin pupils who are learning Russian at 85 secondary schools. The “school class ticket” can be obtained free of charge by all schools by sending an e-mail to schule at @ at wingas.de. More Information is also available on the exhibition’s own website at www.unsererussen.de.

General exhibition information:

“Our Russians – Our Germans.
Images of the Other Side. 1800 – 2000”

Berlin | Schloss Charlottenburg
New Wing
8 December 2007 to 2 March 2008
Tu – Sun 11–17 hrs
from 1 January 2008 | 10 –17 hrs
€ 5 | reduced rate € 4


European energy provider WINGAS GmbH is active in natural gas trading and distribution in Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Austria, the Czech Republic and Denmark. Its customers include municipal utilities, regional gas suppliers, industrial firms and power plants. Since 1990 WINGAS has invested more than 3 billion euros in the development of a natural gas transport and storage infrastructure. WINGAS TRANSPORT pipeline network, which is over 2,000 kilometers long, connects the major gas reserves in Siberia and in the North Sea to the growing markets in Western Europe. In Rehden in North Germany, WINGAS has the largest natural gas storage facility in Western Europe – with a working gas volume of over four billion cubic meters, and the company also participates in Central Europe's second largest storage facility in Haidach, Austria. Additional natural gas storage facilities are currently being built in Great Britain and Germany in order to secure the supply of natural gas in Europe.