Scholarship

Seventh Award of the Casa di Goethe Fellowship by the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation

Bonn / Rome, 17 April 2026

The jury has selected the recipients of the Casa di Goethe Fellowship of the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation for the seventh time. Since 2013, the fellowship has enabled cultural practitioners whose work is dedicated to German-Italian cultural exchange to live and work for two months at the Casa di Goethe Museum, located in the heart of Rome’s historic centre. The museum is operated by the ASKI – Association of Independent Cultural Institutes (Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kultur-Institute e.V.).

From a large number of applications, the German-Italian jury—comprising Francesca Melandri, Dr Holger Pils, and Prof. Dr Dieter Richter—selected eight fellows, who will take up their residencies at the Casa di Goethe beginning in autumn 2026:

• Karen Buttler, art historian, will examine Carl Blechen’s small-format sketchbooks from his Italian journey of 1828–1829.
• Thomas de Padova, author, will conduct research for a historical study on the mathematician Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller of Königsberg).
• Prof. Dr Nugesha Gagnidze, scholar of language and literature, will prepare a Georgian translation of Goethe’s Roman Elegies and write a book in Georgian on Goethe’s Italian Journey.
• Kim Hess, independent film director, author, and producer, will develop her documentary project Canon 230 §1 – Women in the Vatican.
• Demian Lienhard, author, will research the historical, art-historical, and urban contexts for his novel Stratigraphies of Deception (Stratigraphien der Täuschung).
• Ronya Othmann, writer and journalist, will work on her long poem Letters to Exile (Briefe an die Verbannung) and an accompanying essay.
• Dr Kia Vahland, art historian, non-fiction author, and editor, will explore how Albrecht Dürer became a European artist through his experiences in Italy.
• Olivia Vieweg, author and graphic novelist, will conduct research for her travel graphic novel Godless Pilgrimage – From Weimar to the Vatican (Gottlos Pilgern – Von Weimar in den Vatikan).

The Casa di Goethe and ASKI extend their sincere thanks to the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation for its longstanding support of the fellowship programme, which for more than a decade has fostered research and artistic projects dedicated to cultural dialogue between Germany and Italy.

Press Contacts

Lena-Sophia Ibe
Press and Communications
ASKI – Association of Independent Cultural Institutes (Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kultur-Institute e.V.)
Prinz-Albert-Str. 34
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel. +49 228 224859
E-mail: info@aski.org

Tanja Lelgemann
Press and Communications
Casa di Goethe Museum
Via del Corso 18
00186 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39 06 32650412
E-mail: info@casadigoethe.it

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