Iran's security forces stormed the German Embassy-affiliated language school in Tehran on Tuesday, shutting down its operations in what appears to be a retaliatory move for Berlin’s closure of the Khamenei-controlled Islamic Center of Hamburg and the Blue Mosque.
The German Foreign Ministry issued a strong statement condemning the Iranian regime's actions. “We condemn the Iranian security authorities’ action against the German Language Institute in Tehran. There can be no justification for this. Language exchange is fundamental to mutual understanding. The Institute is a well-known and cherished place where people go to great lengths to promote language learning under challenging conditions. Its staff are highly dedicated to their work, which aims, among other things, to strengthen the ties between the people of Iran and Germany,” the ministry stated.
The statement also announced that the Iranian Ambassador would be summoned to the Federal Foreign Office. “We call on the new Iranian government to allow the Institute to resume teaching immediately,” it added.
Jason Brodsky, the policy director for the think tank United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Iran International, that “The Iranians are trying to create an equivalence between the Islamic Center of Hamburg (IZH) and the institute, where there is none. IZH was engaged in supporting terrorism. The institute was teaching language classes. It’s a tit-for-tat propaganda stunt to please domestic hardline audiences in Tehran. European governments, including Germany, should be downsizing their presence in Iran anyway given the security risks there."
According to the X account @mamlekate that provides news from within Iran, "Today at noon, they stormed into the Goethe Institute on Dibaji Street and the Gholhak Educational Institute in Tehran, forcibly removing the teachers, staff, and those taking German exams, using violence. They had cameras and a large number of officers. They were shouting, 'Where do you think you're going?' Afterwards, the NOPO forces tore down the signs and sealed off the institute, which is affiliated with the German Embassy."
One influential pro-Iran regime account on X urged in late July that Iran’s regime shut the institute.
Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian who fled the Islamic Republic and now lives in Germany, told Iran International that she studied German at the Goethe Institut in Tehran. “There are nationwide protests by nurses in Iran. Many educated Iranians are trying to leave the country because of the Islamic Republic's corruption and incompetence, and the regime is trying to stop them. That may be one reason, but the main reason is that the closure of the Blue Mosque [in Germany] has been very difficult for the regime and they are trying to retaliate."
She added that Germany should continue to fight "the terrorists of the Islamic Republic and prevent them from continuing their terrorism on German soil and Germany should respond very harshly: end the city partnerships, close all the Islamic centers of the regime, cut off relations with the Islamic Republic and designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, in short, maximum support for the Iranian people, maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic.
Vojoudi, who is an associate fellow for the Gold Institute for International Strategy, added, “I learned the German language in 2015… I don't remember the exact date, but I attended the German language course for almost a year.”
According to a statement on the website of the Goethe Institute, “From 1958 until 1987, the Goethe-Institut had its own center in Tehran. Then, in 1995, the German Embassy opened the Deutsche Sprachinstitut Tehran (DSIT). A Goethe-Institut expert runs it.“
Iran’s regime closed the Institute in 1981 because of a diplomatic spat between Berlin and Tehran, according to a Wikipedia entry. Iran International could not independently verify the 1981 closure.
Iran International sent press queries to the German Goethe Institute in Germany and in Tehran and to the German government. The Facebook page of the Goethe Institute in Tehran was down.
Katrin Sohns, a spokeswoman for the Goethe Institute in Germany, told Iran International "Thanks for your request on the situation of the Deutsche Sprachinstitut in Teheran (DSIT)." She referred questions to the German foreign ministry.
There are currently campaigns in Germany run by Iranian dissidents to compel the mayor of Freiburg, Martin Horn, to end his city’s partnership with Isfahan. German-Iranian dissidents, who are part of the US Iranian-American organization AAIRIA, launched a campaign to force the Hamburg-based pro-Iran regime Körber Foundation to sever ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran and former Iranian regime ambassador to Germany, Hossein Mousavian.