John E. Woods
On the 26th of March the Goethe-Institut presented the 54th Annual Goethe-Medaille in Weimar. The award honored those who exhibit an exceptional dedication to international cultural exchange. This year the president of the Goethe-Institut, Jutta Limbach, presented the prize to French Theatre director Bernard Sobel; Gholam Dastgir Behbud, a German scholar from Afghanistan, and American translator John E. Woods.
Pictures of the event:
John Woods, an American translator of German language literature into English, received this distinction for his thirty year career of intermediating between the two languages. Of note are the breadth of his translations and the depth of his knowledge of German literature. Woods’ translations include Döbin, Raabe, Dürrenmatt, Grass, Ransmayr, Dörrie, Treichel and frequently Thomas Mann and Arno Schmidt. John Woods has managed not only to capture Thomas Mann’s irony; but, also to do justice to the multiplicity of styles implemented by Schmidt. Especially in America, where the market for literature in translation pales in comparison to the massive machine of English language publications and the knowledge of the German language is in decline, the success of Wood’s translations exemplifies role that literary translators can play the ambassadors of culture.
Lauditory remarks were given by Jan Philipp Reemtsma. Reemtsma is founder and board member of the Arno Schmidt Foundation, the Hamburg Institute for Social Research (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung), and the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture (Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur).
The Goethe-Medaille was created in 1954 by the board or directors of the Goethe-Institut and has been recognized as an official award of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1975. In 1992 the tradition began of presenting the award in Weimar on the day of Goethe’s death. The award is presented to non-Germans who have made tremendous strides in promoting the German language and international cultural exchange. Since the first award in 1955, 317 individuals from 58 different countries have been honored. Among the award recipients are: Pierre Bourdieu, Jorge Semprún, Sir Ernst Gombrich, György Ligeti, Sir Karl Reimund Popper, Billy Wilder and Daniel Barenboim. 
Zitate von und über John Woods 
John's Dankrede in English (pdf, 38KB) Further information is available at:
www.goethe.de/uun/gme/enindex.htm
