Flavours of the Philippines launched in Berlin

The Philippine Embassy in Berlin launched “Flavours of the Philippines,” a month-long Filipino culinary festival, last May 30 at the Ambassador’s official residence with a dinner for media friends.

The event was attended by Ingrid Müller, Editor-in-Chief of Berlin Tagesspiegel; Franz Michael Rohm of Berliner Morgenpost’s Culinary Section; Diplomacy and Business Magazine Publisher; Frank Schüttig and Editor, Rainer Schubert; and The Filipino Channel Germany correspondent, Ms. Grace Pickert. Featured for the evening were a variety of traditional home-cooked meals and more modern versions of Filipino food prepared by Berlin’s Filipino restaurateurs.

The Embassy has partnered with Lynne Cuisine in Hamburg, Pinoy Restaurant, Ayan Restaurant, Pan Restaurant and Mabuhay Res tau ran t i n Ber l i n i n o rgan iz ing promotional events for the entire month of June. Lucky customers who availed of the Independence month special won copies of the book “Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine.”

Brillat Savarin School Berlin

Hamburg Hotelfachschule

The Kulinarya Team touched base with culinary students during their v is i ts to the Hamburg Hote l -fachschule, Hamburg and Brillat Savarin School in Berlin.

O n J u n e 2 0 , A m b a s s a d o r Thomeczek opened a Kulinarya photo exhibit at the Hotelfachschule Hamburg. Highlight of the day, which was attended by some 70 faculty members and students, was a lecture on Filipino cuisine, its origins and flavours, by Ms. Michaela Fenix, and an adobo cooking demonstration by Chef Myrna Segismundo.

After the program, students eagerly lined up to taste a sampler set prepared by the Kulinarya Team composed of adobo paté, adobo, rice, and ginataang halu-halo, as well as cocktai ls made of Fi l ip ino alcoholic beverages.

The same lecture at the Brillat Savarin school in Berlin on June 23 was also well-attended. Philippine vinegar and soy sauce, ube, pili nuts, and atsara, picked the students‘ curiosity, encouraging them to ask questions on how to use the rare ingredients in their recipes.

Exhibit and visit to German culinary schools

Kulinarya Dinner in Berlin

For the celebration of the 119th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence for the diplomatic corps and German government officials, the Embassy held a dinner on June 22, at the Maritim Hotel Berlin, with a Filipino dinner prepared by the renowned Kulinarya Team of Filipino chefs.

Before the dinner, guests were able to enjoy adobo paté and a variety of cocktail drinks using Filipino alcoholic beverages like mango rhum and Don Papa rhum.

The special five-course dinner consisted of kinilaw (assorted seafood cooked with vinegar), sopa de molo (dumplings in clear broth), ginataang isda (fish with crabfat sauce), dalandan (a citrus fruit) sherbet, and bistek tagalog (beef with soy sauce glaze).

Guests from the German Parliament and Foreign Ministry, members of the diplomatic corps, local media, and other personalities from the arts and culture scene lingered late into the night as they enjoyed an impressive dessert spread of turrones de Manila, canonigo, queso de bola cheesecake, caramel bars, and torta de tablea, paired with barako coffee and salabat.

Santa Misa para sa Bayan (Mass for the Country)

This year‘s Independence Day celebrations kicked-off with a special mass on June 11 at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Berlin, followed by a concert by the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus and a merienda cena for the Filipino community.

Mr. Torsten Griess-Nega is the new Honorary Consul of the Philippines in Hesse.

The Office of the Honorary Consul of the Philippines is now located in Frankfurt Straße 70, D-61231 Bad Nauheim with telephone number +49 6032 96 61 250. Emails may be sent to h e s s e n @ p h i l i p p i n e - e m b a s s y . d e o r mail@steintreu.de. Opening hours to the public will be from Monday - Friday from 09:00 - 12:00 Hours.

Honorary Consul Griess-Nega has a long standing relationship with the Republic of the Philippines. For many years he was the Chairman of a manufacturing firm in Manila. Until the present, he travels regularly to Manila from Germany and has developed a great familiarity with the Filipino people. “I know the Filipino soul...“ he once said.

In Germany, Honorary Consul Griess-Nega has been an active member of civi l society organizatons for many years. His achieve-ments range from co-founder of private Universities (he was the President of the INSEAD Zentrum Leipzig for over 10 years) to heading a restructuring consultancy firm for more than 20 years, which did extensive work for the Berlin Government. Today he is still Chairman or member of the Board of Directors of many companies, among them Zahnfabrik Bad Nauheim, a company with a more than 100 years history.

He holds a Diploma of the University of Hamburg (Economics) and is a MBA graduate of the elite university INSTEAD. He is married to Dipl. Kff, Dipl. Volkswirtin Heike Griess-Nega and has 4 children.

Honorary Consul Griess-Nega is one of the five Philippine Honorary Consuls of the Philippines in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Mr. Griess-Nega‘s predecessor, Professor Dr. Gerhard Zeidler, has retired from the position as of January 01, 2017 after 16 years as Honorary Consul and later Honorary Consul General.

The Philippine Consulate in Hesse offers civil registration services for Filipinos, issues tourist visas for Germans and does legalization and authentication of documents.

Meet the Newly Appointed Philippine Honorary Consuls in the Federal States of Hesse and Baden Württemberg

Dr. Axel Neumahr, a lawyer and one of the eq-uity partners of the highly reputable Reith Neu-mahr Attorneys, takes over the rein as the new Honorary Consul succeeding Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ger-hard Zeidler who has decided to take his well-deserved retirement after dedicatingly serving the Filipino Community in the region of Baden-Württemberg for the last 15 years .

Dr. Neumahr earned his law degree from the University of Tübingen in Germany and also studied at the University of Leiden at The Neth-erlands. In 1999 he acquired his Doctorate title and later on got admitted as deputy notary be-fore becoming a certified commercial and corpo-rate law attorney. In 2005, Dr. Neumahr and fellow lawyer Prof. Dr. Thomas Reith forged a business partnership and established Reith Neumahr Attorneys providing expertise in busi-ness and corporate law as well as estate and succession planning. The law firm also offers notarial services and advises in mergers and acquisitions transactions, in inheritance law and in private and commercial property law.

To assist Dr. Neumahr in his new task as an Honorary Consul for the region of Baden-Württemberg is Consular Assistant Ms. Rhodali-za Steegmaier who takes over the post of Ms. Cecile Atienza-Krause.

The new Philippine Honorary Consulate's office is located at the 4th Floor, left wing (Kern 2) of the Oasis III building in Leitzstrasse 45, 70469 Stuttgart. The office is conveniently accessible as it is situated some 15 minute-walk from the S-Bahn station Feuerbach and 5 minutes on foot from the Maybacherstraße or Pragsattel U-Bahn stations. Visiting hours is by appointment and may be arranged on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday from 9:30am to 12:30pm. The new phone numbers and email address will be an-nounced soon.

For further information about the Philippine Hon-orary Consulate in Stuttgart, please call the Phil-ippine Embassy's Consular section at +49 (30) 864 95 00 or visit www.philippine-embassy.de for the latest information and updates on this subject.

Rizal Prize awardees

Deputy Chief of Mission and Consul General Donna Rodriguez celebrates Dr. Rizal‘s 156th birth anniversary with members of the Order of the Knights of Rizal and Ladies for Rizal, and the people of Wilhelmsfeld.

Dr. Jose Rizal’s affection for Germany and its people is evident in his many travels in his “scientific mother country.” For more than a year, he moved from city to city, admiring the beauty of the cities along the banks of the Rhine and immersing in many intellectual pursuits in other parts of the country.

Berlin, the capital, is where Dr. Rizal’s most pivotal literary work, Noli Me Tangere, first came off the press, eventually paving the way for Filipinos’ pursuit of independence from Spain.

This year, in celebration of the 156th anniversary of our national hero’s birth, the Philippine Embassy in Berlin launched an illustrated map called, “Rizal in Germany,” The map retraces Rizal’s journey through the country from February 1886 to May 1887, with special focus on Wilhelmsfeld, Heidelberg and Berlin, the three cities where he spent most of his time.

“We’d like to rekindle once more our people's knowledge of and interest in the life of Jose Rizal,” Phi l ippine Ambassdor Meli ta S t a . M a r i a - T h o m e c z e k s a i d . “ W e summarized what the diaries and the books say into a kind of trail and make it easily accessible, both as a printed material and a digital map.”

A simple ceremony was held in the chancery on Dr. Rizal’s birthday, June 19, to mark the map’s launch. The event, jointly organized by the Embassy and the Ladies for Rizal, included singing of traditional songs and poetry-reading.

The map features illustrations by June Digan and was designed and laid out by Berlin-based artist Jenny Peñas. It can be downloaded from the Embassy website through th is l ink : h t tp : / /ph i l ipp ine-embassy.de/rizal-trail-in-germany/rizal-map/.

Jose Rizal Cultural Heritage Award. On June 23, 2017, the Philippine Embassy bestowed on Mayor Hans Zellner of Wilhelmsfeld the Jose Rizal Cultural Heritage Award for his excellent contribution in promoting the legacy of Dr. Jose Rizal, National Hero of the Philippines, in Germany, specifically in Heidelberg and Wilhelmsfeld. The recognition was among many awarded to the Mayor at the Odenwald Halle in Wilhelmsfeld with townsfolk and town/State official attending.

Retracing Rizal‘s Journey through Germany

Ambassador Thomeczek and Ladies for Rizal Head Stella Schnell unveil the Rizal in Germany illustrated map together with Consul General Donna Rodriguez, Minister Adrian Cruz, and Consul Catherine Torres, and Knights of Rizal members.