History | Storja

Since 2000, Thomas Stolz and Ray Fabri (Malta) initiated and further deepened contacts between the Bremen Linguistics Department, its partner institute at the Università ta' Malta and the Department of Maltese at the same university. From these early beginnings, the idea has developed to strengthen Maltese linguistics institutionally also from an international perspective. To this end, the first international conference on Maltese linguistics (1st Lingwistika Maltija) was held in Bremen in 2007 and on this occasion the G?aqda Internazzjonali tal-Lingwistika Maltija / International Association of Maltese Linguistics (G?iLM) was founded, which has since been chaired by Thomas Stolz. G?iLM has numerous active members from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, the USA and many more. Meanwhile, seven conferences have already taken place in Bremen (2x), Malta (2x), Lyon, Turin, Bratislava and Krakow. The 8th Lingwistika Maltija is planned for September 2023 in Bremen.

From the successful establishment of G?iLM, the logical step was the foundation of the Malta Centre on 29 June 2012 based on a cooperation agreement between the then University Rectors Wilfried Müller (Bremen) and Juanito Camilleri (Malta). After a five-year term, this contract was extended in 2017 for another five years until June 2022. Thomas Stolz took over the directorship of the Malta Centre. From 2012 to 2020, Benjamin Saade worked administratively at the Malta Centre. In 2014, the then President of the Republic of Malta, George Abela, visited Germany on the occasion of his state visit and took the opportunity to underline the importance attached to the Malta Centre from an official Maltese perspective. Several visits were also made to the Malta Centre by the Ambassadors of Malta, the Rector of the Università ta' Malta and a representative of the Junior College.