Create a Modern German Fairy Tale

“Create a Modern German Fairy Tale” was the motto of the last DAAD competition, whereby students were encouraged to use traditional fairy tale elements in order to create a new, contemporary German tale.

With more than 90 submissions from across the country from a wide range of disciplines, the response we received was, once again, fabulous. The diversity of approaches and breadth of imagination expressed in the various works were truly inspiring.

Whether it is the modern take on Sleeping Beauty, who is captivated in a CCTV secured tower where she stages a wild party instead of sleeping; the rewriting of Sterntaler as a socialist mythology, in which the little girl gives up her last FDJ shirt “zum Wohle des Volkes” and is awarded the prestigious Ernst – Thälmann medal; or the sober, juridical take on the Rapunzel tale, in which Rapunzel’s potential compensation claims for forced imprisonment (worth £200.000) are balanced against the damages caused to the witch (loss of lettuces); we were thoroughly impressed by the originality of these witty, entertaining and sometimes scary German tales.

Prize-giving 2 December 2009

Dr Andreas Hoeschen and Cord Meier-Klodt, Head of Culture and Education at the German Embassy, handed over certificates and prizes to the 10 competition winners at our awards ceremony on 2^nd December. Ambassador Georg Boomgaarden joined the ceremony later in order to congratulate our prize-winners individually.

We would like to thank our prize-winners and everybody who participated in the competition or supported us. A special thank you goes to the German Embassy London and German British Forum, the competition jury, as well as the DAAD Lektoren and language assistants for their continuous support.

It was a real challenge for the jury to select a limited number of submissions as all of them were very original and inspiring pieces.