Wolfgang SchmidtWe send you greetings from the Bach Festival in Leipzig. It seems that many Houstonians are visiting Leipzig this month; we’ve seen Robert and Kathy Moore with a group for the Bachfest; Lutheran Bishop Mike Rhinehart from the Gulf Coast Synod is visiting Leipzig and will travel, blog, and take great pictures during his summer sabbatical; some of our directors were here, are here, will be here . . .

Back in Houston, we will have a great start to our summer series Houston-Leipzig at the movies, when we screen Young Goethe in Love (2010) on Thursday, June 26, 2014. After aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fails his law exams, he’s sent to a sleepy provincial court to reform. Instead, he falls for Lotte, a young woman who is promised to another man.

What is so thrilling about the movie, is the intermingling of lovelorn Goethe’s real life and emotions for a real-life Lotte that are also mirrored in his first “bestseller” Die Leiden des jungen Wertherthe Sorrows of Young Werther. He is writing about the joy of a first, deep love, and the strictures of society restraining the life he wants to live, intertwining Lotte’s story and his own. Of course, Goethe overcomes the disappointments of his early life to become Germany’s foremost poet, while Young Werther faces a different fate.

Steve Braun, Master of Ceremonies par excellence, will welcome you to the movies. The film will be shown in German with English subtitles with exceptional acoustics in the Parish Hall of Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Boulevard. Please respond to angelika@houstonleipzig.org as soon as possible, so that we can plan for our customary food and beverage reception which starts at 6:30 p.m.

Registration will begin at 6:15 p.m., the movie at 7:00 p.m. Meeting fees are $10 for members, $ 5 for students, and $15 for nonmembers, regardless of whether you participate in the reception. Ample parking is available on the Rice University parking lot off Greenbriar for $1, credit cards only.

There are so many more exciting events that I would like to and need tell you about that I will write again in a couple of days. Houston-Leipzig has many friends around the world, and I am overwhelmed with the good will we encounter everywhere.

Until then, stay cool, be cool,

Wolfgang Schmidt
Houston-Leipzig Sister City Association
2014 President

Leave a Reply