Osnabrück, April 6, 2017

"Ohhh!" exclaimed the students of the "In der Wüste" high school with honest regret when their teacher Jürgen Eckey had to sit down. With just a few too many mistakes, the German teacher had not made it into the final selection of the best dictations, which were once again examined by the jury of the big dictation competition to then announce the best. Eckey received the result with a smile - but also with a slight disappointment at not having been better. The good feeling in the group - and not the competition - was in the foreground when the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation had challenged to the big dictation competition for the third time. In the auditorium of the grammar school "In der Wüste", parents, teachers - but above all students from five secondary schools from the city and district of Osnabrück had taken on the language sport.

This time, the dictation was particularly tricky: the explanatory glossary of the Duden editorial office for the dictation, which consisted of 209 words, contained 72 points. No one had cleared the hurdles error-free, which this time focused primarily on the questions of what is written together and what is written separately, but also what is to be written in upper and lower case. It already started with the headline: "The Day of Dueling" was the title of the text, which dealt with a sporting clinch between the schools of two cities that has been going on for 16 years - the Osnabrück Carolinum and the Paulinum in Münster. Participants in the big dictation competition in Münster had received a very similar text. "It's supposed to be fun, after all, which is why the texts always have a tongue-in-cheek background," said Michael Prior, the managing director of the Bohnenkamp Foundation. The foundation took up the idea of the competition, which was developed by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main. It is being held there for the sixth time this year.

With seven errors, Andreas Schreiber was - as last year - the best among the participating teachers. The winner in the "Parents" category was Tanja Wesner (eight errors), who was taking part in the competition for the third time. Among the students, Sebastian Schröter won with eleven errors. The texts were reviewed by a seven-member jury chaired by Prof. Dr. Christina Noack. The Germanist from the University of Osnabrück had also read the dictation again.

During the jury session, Theater Osnabrück presented a variant of its "Dead or alive" program. In this special form of a poetry slam - a competition for authors of short texts - Benjamin Werner as Francois Villon (1431-1464), a French poet, competed against Andreas Weber with his own short stories. Presenter Milena Kowalski then had a tip for the participants in the competition: "If you've written something wrong, you can also say 'That's not a spelling mistake, that's art,'" she explained to the smiling audience. At the award ceremony, the participants not only received a certificate, trophies, vouchers for cultural activities and games. They were also invited to the event "Language sport in the swimming pool - the great dictation competition" on Friday, May 19, 2017, during Foundation Day, which is being held this year in Osnabrück.

The winners

Students:

1st Sebastian Schröter, Gymnasium "In der Wüste".

2nd Anna Richter, Greslius-Gymnasium Bramsche and Pauline von Höne, Gymnasium Bersenbrück

3. Alicia Deman and Carla Schmitz, "In der Wüste" grammar school

Teachers:

1. Andreas Schreiber, Bersenbrück High School

2. Tobias Meyer Uta Logemann, Ursulaschule Ursulaschule

3. Thomas Allewelt, Gymnasium "In der Wüste" (high school)

Parents:

1. Tanja Wesner, Bertha von Suttner Secondary School

2nd Tatjana von Höne, Bersenbrück High School

3. Julia Heutling, Ursulaschule