Writing Competition 2010

“Spiel”, “doppelganger”, “zeitgeist”, “stumm” are just a few examples of German loanwords in the English language. With the last DAAD competition, which was part of the Think German campaign, we wanted to draw attention to the sometimes unexpected German heritage by encouraging you to look at the loanwords in a playful way. How would you bring a concept like “kitsch” or “angst” to life? Participants could choose whichever medium they prefer.

With 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 compilation of and play on various German loanwords in a poem; the philosophical interview with a personified, sometimes obscure zeitgeist, “Boris in bother” – a slapstick, black and white film presented by “Stummfilm Productions”; the visual social-realist parody “Kaput” or the quirky photographic visualisation of Uebermensch; we were thoroughly impressed by the originality of these witty and entertaining takes on German loanwords.

Prize-giving 18th June 2010

Dr Andreas Hoeschen and Cord Meier-Klodt, Head of Culture and Education at the German Embassy, handed over certificates and prizes to the 4 of the 5 competition winners at our awards ceremony on 18th June. Ambassador Georg Boomgaarden joined the ceremony later in order to congratulate our prize-winners individually.

The prizes were 5 trips to Berlin to attend a cultural/arts festival during summer 2010.

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.