This year, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR) are joining forces for the sixth time to invite all learners and lovers of German to take part in a writing competition.
2019 marks the 200th birthdays of Queen Victoria and her husband Albert. This year’s competition is launched on Valentine’s Day to commemorate a love that blossomed across borders, cultures and languages, between the Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the British queen. They first met in May 1836, were engaged in October 1839 and married in February 1840. During the years before Albert moved to Windsor Castle, many letters crossed the Channel – from Britain to Saxony and back from Saxony to Britain – and most, if not all of them were written in German, the language Victoria had learnt from her mother as a little girl.
Your competition brief is to imagine one of these letters. You could either:
- Put yourself in the shoes of Victoria or Albert (or both) and write a (pair of) letter(s) or
- creatively adapt one (or an exchange) of their letters as a mini-play, lyrics for a rap song (à la Hamilton), a (set of) poem(s) or similar.
The only two rules: your text must be written in German and not be longer than 350 words.
The competition is open to
- students at secondary schools/ Sixth Form Colleges
- undergraduates
- postgraduates
- German mother tongue speakers and
- anybody else who feels up to the challenge!
Please find more information on how to take part on the DAAD website.
The deadline for submission is
Wednesday, 15 May 2019.
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