Germany’s Goethe-Institut is closing all three of its Russian branches by Sunday, marking one of the worst ruptures in the history of German-Russian relations.
The Russian Foreign Ministry ordered the closures of the German cultural centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk in direct response to Germany’s reaction to an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport in early August 2026.
German authorities blamed Moscow for organizing the attack in early September, announcing a series of retaliatory sanctions targeting Russian cultural and diplomatic operations on German soil.
Those sanctions included closing the Russian culture and education center in Berlin, known as the Russian House, shutting the Russian Consulate General in Bonn, and tightening visa restrictions for Russian citizens.
“All employees must cease their work in Russia as of September 13, 2026,” Goethe-Institut Secretary General Gitte Zschoch said in a statement, warning that libraries would close, training programs would end, and access to German language education would be severely curtailed.
Goethe-Institut president Gesche Joost described the closures as “the end of an era in German-Russian cultural relations,” underscoring the historic weight of the diplomatic breakdown.
The closures strike particularly hard at ethnic Germans seeking to relocate to Germany, with some readers telling DW that their relatives in Russia will now be forced to travel abroad to sit for required German language certification exams.
“I no longer live in Russia, having emigrated as a late repatriate, but my parents are still in Russia and were planning to take exams at the Goethe-Institut this fall or winter before submitting their resettlement documents,” one reader said, adding that they will now face additional stress and expenses.
German language teachers are also among those most heavily affected, with one educator from the Moscow region describing a partnership with the institute spanning more than 15 years as “one of the most important pillars of our work.”
“I teach German and can’t find a job in Russia,” another teacher told DW, while a third described feeling “professionally stranded and lost” following the announcement.
Despite restrictions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, demand for the institute’s services remained significant, with around 10,000 people studying German through its programs and partnerships in 2025, down from roughly 16,000 before 2023.
The institute administered approximately 22,000 exams and recorded 6,700 library visits in 2025 alone, figures that illustrate the scale of engagement that will now be abruptly cut off.
It remains unclear whether exams, language courses, or educational programs will continue in any alternative format or through partner organizations inside Russia.
Many Russians who shared their perspectives with DW framed the closures as a broader assault on civil society and cultural exchange, with one reader stating that “culture has become a hostage to political decisions.”
“The closure of the Goethe-Institut will affect people who have no way of influencing politicians,” the same reader added, expressing frustration that ordinary citizens bear the consequences of high-level diplomatic disputes.
One reader questioned why Russian officials capable of “making decisions to isolate Russia from Europe” could simultaneously ensure European educations for their own children, and proposed banning the relatives of top Russian leadership from studying at universities in Germany and other EU countries.
A 2011 bilateral intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Germany regulates the operations of both the Russian House in Berlin and the Goethe-Institut branches in Russia, obliging both sides to ensure conditions necessary for the functioning of their respective cultural centers.
That agreement, however, does not provide for the automatic closure of one country’s cultural centers in response to actions taken by the other, making the current situation a matter of political choice rather than legal obligation.
The Goethe-Institut operates 154 branches across 100 countries, a figure that now includes the three Russian locations in the process of being permanently shuttered.
