DAAD/ILCS German Language Competition 2024

Presenting ‘Live auf Sendung’ a radio report by the winners of this year’s German Language Competition!

The winners first took a tour of the London studios of German broadcaster, ARD, with Dr. Gabi Biesinger, before recording their own segments with journalist, Cerys Maidment. The pressing topic of the day was UK-German relations. The winners pitched innovative ideas for overcoming stereotypes, such as a visit from the Cologne Carnival to Liverpool, German-British music and film festivals, and a heated discussion on the appropriation of Oktoberfest.

Click the link below to watch and Viel Spaß beim Zuhören!

‘Live Auf Sendung’ A Radio Report from the Winners of GLC 2024

Copyright: DAAD, Cerys Maidment

On the 25th October, the winners of the DAAD/ILCS German Language Competition 2024 ‘What a Year! Schlagzeilen aus der Zukunft’ were invited to London for an engaging journalism workshop led by journalist Cerys Maidment. Following the workshop, they visited the studios of German broadcaster ARD, where they explored the facilities with correspondent Gabi Biesinger and recorded their own radio segments.

The winners pitched innovative ideas for overcoming stereotypes through British-German events, including a visit from the Cologne Carnival to Liverpool, German-British music and film festivals, and a heated discussion on the appropriation of Oktoberfest.

This was followed by the event ‘Reporting the Other’, a round-table discussion at the prestigious Chancellor’s Hall of the University of London Senate House. The panel featured prominent journalists, including former BBC presenter Rosie Goldsmith, ARD foreign correspondent Dr. Gabi Biesinger, Sky News output producer Stephanie Nourse, and Dr. Imke Henkel, UK & Ireland correspondent for the German Press and Lecturer in German and Journalism at the University of Leeds.

The winning entrants received certificates along with a goodie bag filled with German-language books and gifts from our co-sponsors. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants, guest speakers, colleagues, and our co-sponsors, the German Embassy, ICLS Keith Spalding Trust, Goethe Institute, Austrian Cultural Forum, and the Embassy of Switzerland, for making this event a resounding success. What a year, what a day!

DAAD London/Falcone

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We are excited to publish this special issue of The Daily Deutsch featuring all winning entries of this year’s competition.

The winner of the People’s Choice Award was announced at our final event on 25.10.24 at Senate House, University of London, and recieved a free German language course from the Goethe Institut London.

Read the newspaper here:

What a Year! Schlagzeilen aus der Zukunft

The jury commended the exceptional quality of language and creativity demonstrated in the entries. The articles displayed an impressive command of German and effectively applied well-researched background knowledge on key current affairs in the German-speaking world. We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 competition:

Category: University Students (1^st/2^nd Year)

• Eliza Lewin, University of Edinburgh
• Aisling Peköz, University College Cork
• Hana Krämlingová, University College Cork

Category: University Students (3^rd/4^th Year) and other German Learners

• Frances Corlett, Wirral
• Patrick Burrow, University of St Andrews
• Joseph Cogan, Durham University

Category: Secondary School Pupils

• Ria Yadav, Lancing College, Lancing
• Amina Hussain, King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, Birmingham
• Michelle Huang, St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh
• Kristina, St Mary’s Music school, Edinburgh
• Elleanore Phillips, Townley Grammar School, London

Special Category: Secondary School Pupils (Native Speaker)

• Gabriel Bosse Chitty, Europa School UK, Abingdon

All of them will be invited to join a journalism workshop followed by the award ceremony on 25th October 2024 at Senate House London. Everyone will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite entry to determine the winner of the People’s Choice Award. We will update you about the process to vote for your favourite entry here and on our social media channels.

Das war 2024: You are a reporter at a broadsheet newspaper in the German-speaking world. Your editor has asked you to prepare a front page for the last edition of 2024, looking back at the key events in the year. Follow the steps below to build your front page:

1. Plan. Consider your stories. You might start by choosing two or three current topics which interest you and imagining how they could develop by the end of the year. Or perhaps you want to think about what would be the most surprising or interesting turns that the news might take. What about considering the major events and anniversaries coming up in the year? Your articles must come under these headings:

2. Write. You need to write three articles (school pupils: two articles). The whole page should contain no more than 600 words in total (school pupils: 400 words in total). This word count includes articles, title, headlines, subheadings, and a picture caption. Look at the teaching and learning material and inspiration pack at the bottom of this page for ideas of different writing formats – maybe including a short interview, or a review on your front page would add interest? You will also find a glossary with vocabulary you can use to convey the paper’s tone.

3. Design. Once you have your text, it is time to give your paper an identity. Choose one of the three template options below. Your newspaper needs a name, and each article needs an eye-catching headline and potentially a sub-headline. Add the date (31.12.24) and a picture (following the guidelines under ‘Terms and Conditions’).

Submissions for the 2024 competition are now closed and entries are being reviewed by our jury. 

After entering your personal details, you will be asked to upload your competition entry as a Word file. Please be aware that only participants living in the UK and Ireland are eligible to take part in the competition.

Feel free to contact events.london@daad.de if you have any questions.

To be eligible, entrants must submit:

• a front page of German text of no more than 600 words, which contains three articles (school pupils: two articles with maximum 400 words) with headlines and potentially subheadings, under the categories given above
• a catchy newspaper title, and
• a picture which is not copyright protected, e.g. self-captured photos, original illustrations or drawings, or images with a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Entrants can be learners and speakers of any age and any level of German language. They must reside within the UK or Ireland.

The same brief applies for school pupils, but they are asked to write only two articles. Their front page should contain no more than 400 words in total. This word count includes articles, title, headlines, subheadings, and a picture caption. 

In order to facilitate the integration of the competition into German classes at schools and universities, we have prepared exercises related to journalism that can be used at all levels. All exercises can also be completed as self-study activities.

You will also find a document with background information and recommendations that will help participants familiarise themselves with the theme of the competition.

An independent jury of academics and German language experts will decide on the winners in each category. Winners will be announced at the prize ceremony in London.

There will also be the chance to vote for the ‘Publikumsliebling’, the audience favourite, once the winning submissions have been published online.

Juding Panel 2024:

Stephan Ehrig is a Lecturer in German at the University of Glasgow. He researches German literature around 1800 (especially Heinrich von Kleist), contemporary streaming TV, engages with interdisciplinary approaches to East German culture (literature, theatre, film, architecture) but is also interested in how German culture generally can be re-located within transnational and ‘de-colonised’ approaches to the study of Modern Languages.

Paul Hoegger is co-ordinator and teacher of German at the Cambridge University Language Centre and Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics of the University of Cambridge. He is also Director of Studies for Modern Languages at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge and teaches literary seminars at the Institute of Continuing Education of the University (Madingley Hall).

René Koglbauer is Dean of Lifelong Learning and Professional Practice and Professor of Professional Learning and Leadership at Newcastle University. René is the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Association for Language Learning and has previously been its president. René is the UK representative to the International German Teacher Association and the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation.

Duncan Large is Professor of European Literature and Translation at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and Executive Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. Till 2014 he was Professor of German and Head of the Department of Languages, Translation and Communication at Swansea University.

Joanne Leal is a Professor in German at Birkbeck, University of London, where she is also Pro Vice Chancellor Academic Projects. She teaches and researches in the areas of twentieth and twenty-first century literature and film and has a particular interest in gender and sexuality and the representation of significant social issues, including migration and social exclusion.

Maria Roca Lizarazu is Assistant Professor in German at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on 20th and 21st century German-language literature and culture, with a focus on cultural production by and about minorities (esp. German Jewish)  as well as cultural engagements with (post-)migration, transnationalism, and citizenship. Maria also has an interest in critical practices of memory- and future-making that draw on creative, arts-based approaches, especially in the context of violent pasts and presents. She is the author of Renegotiating Postmemory. The Holocaust in Contemporary German-language Jewish Literature (Camden House, 2020).

Pauline Wick is a Project Coordinator for the Gimagine project at the Goethe-Institut London. She is responsible for a range of different motivational programmes for young German learners in the UK. Pauline previously worked as a commercial and theatre translator for German, English and Spanish.

Andrea Wilczynski is Head of the School of Modern Languages at Newcastle University. She has been a longstanding member of the School’s German Section where she currently teaches Interpreting and German language to final year students. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

All winners will be invited to a journalism workshop and prize ceremony, with an overnight stay in London for those coming from outside of London! This will take place in October 2024.

Further prizes include a German language course with the Goethe Institut London for the Publikumsliebling, newspaper/magazine subscriptions, a take-home and custom-designed newspaper of all winning entries, books, and other surprise gifts.