During the Italian Cultural Days in Bremen, a special event took center stage at Villa Ichon on June 5th: “The Words of the Treccani Encyclopedia’s Centennial.” The event was inspired by a project from the long-established Treccani Encyclopedia, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025 and has selected 100 symbolic words to mark the occasion—one for each year of its history. These terms not only reflect linguistic development but also the political, social, and cultural changes Italy has undergone over the past century.
Antonella Lavagno, an Italian instructor at the Language Center of the Universities in the Land of Bremen, and Florian Wichert, a doctoral candidate at the University of Bremen, led the evening’s proceedings. The focus was on four selected terms: Republic, literacy, song, and Berlusconism. These served as keys to illuminating central developments in Italian contemporary history. In an interview with 9Colonne, both speakers emphasized that these terms remain relevant today because they encapsulate historical processes that have had a lasting impact on Italy.
Lavagno highlighted the term “republic” in particular and referred to the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic. Wichert emphasized that “literacy” and “Berlusconism” are also deeply embedded in processes of social and political change. At the same time, it became clear that interest in Italian culture in Germany remains undiminished—from music and literature to cuisine. For both presenters, it is precisely this cultural closeness between Italy and Germany that makes it important to understand Italian history as part of a shared European experience.
