Victoria & Albert 200 Competition Winners

Monday 1 July 2019

The winners of the 6th DAAD-IMLR German writing competition were celebrated at an event on 28 June held at the German Embassy. Marking the 200th birthdays of both Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, competitors had been asked to put themselves in the shoes of Victoria or Albert (or both) and create a letter or exchange of letters between the couple, whose love affair became legendary. Competitors were free to choose their own medium: a poem, letter, rap song, play or whatever else came to mind. Original and diverse, the entries included a comic strip and an exchange of text messages, and showed an enthusiasm and standard of German which is encouraging at a time when the learning of foreign languages is in decline. 

Guest of honour at the prize-giving was Daisy Goodwin, historian, novelist and screenplay-writer of the ITV drama series Victoria, who talked to the IMLR's Godela Weiss-Sussex about the challenges of bringing the story to the screen. 

Wellington School, Timperley, provided all the prize-winners in the Secondary School 10-14 age group, with 1st prize being awarded to Toby Smith, 2nd going to Madeleine Tully, and 3rd to Chloe Doyle and Kate Lane jointly. 

In the Secondary Schools 15-17 age group, 1st prize was awarded jointly to Elsa and Eleanor Voak (Oxford High School) and Clara Heider (Halcyon London International School), 2nd to Ester Narduzzi (International School, London), and 3rd to Michael Clayton-Jolly (City of London School). 

In the Students and Other category, joint 1st prize was awarded to Lidija Beric (Cambridge University) and Lorin Bozkurt (King's College London), and 2nd went to Siobhan Williams. 

The German School swept the board in the Mother-Tongue categories, with 1st in the age group 14-15 going to Benedikt Decker, 2nd to Carla Kirchhoff, and 3rd to Clara Dickinson, whilst in the age group 16 and older, 1st prize was awarded to Julianna Pollok and Philippine Marie-Victoire Moritz, 2nd to Helena Rose O'Brien and Emilia Derbuch-Markovic, and 3rd to Marlene Rothenbusch and Olga Artiles. 

The organisers are grateful to the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, The Embassy of Switzerland, the Austrian Cultural Forum London, the Goethe-Institut London, the British Library, and the Royal Collection Trust for the sponsorship of this year's competition.