Johannes Ebert has been Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut since 2012. He read Islamic Studies and Political Science in Freiburg and Damaskus and thereafter worked as a journalist. After periods as an instructor at the Goethe-Institut in Prien, as a language course consultant at the Goethe-Institut in Riga and as deputy head of the Public Relations division in the Munich head office, he was director of the Goethe-Institut Kiev from 1997 to 2002. From 2002 to 2007 he was director of the Goethe-Institut in Cairo and regional director for North Africa and the Middle East. Subsequently he served as director of the Goethe-Institut in Moscow and regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia from 2007 to 2012.