Sprachfest History

This is the home page of the South and Central Texas Regional German Contest, SPRACHFEST. In the Fall of 1976 the first Sprachfest was held in San Antonio at MacArthur High School. In the Spring of 1977 it moved to South West Texas State University in San Marcos, where it found a home until 1993. In 1994 Sprachfest moved to its present location at the University of Texas in San Antonio. From 500 to 700 students from 20-25 schools participate annually on the first Saturday in February.

On that same day in the Dallas and Houston areas, similar contests are also held. On the last Saturday in February, the top five winners in each category from all three contests meet at The University of Texas, Austin for the Texas State German Contest. If you are interested in the Dallas/Ft. Worth contest contact or in the Houston area contact for information, go to this site State Contest.

Annually more than 90 schools and about 1500 students participate in the four contests in Texas. It is the largest and most active German contest system in the United States. The success of the Contests is due in part to a tradition begun nearly 70 years ago in Austin at the University of Texas and Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where high school students went to compete and the universities presented plays for them. Today college and university professors and students are judges. There are at least 135 judges at each competition. Trophies and ribbons are given to the top 10 winners in each category. There are 36 categories and half of these have sections for each of the four levels of German studies.
Here is the link to the Texas State German Contest, INC

Incorporated in 2003 under The Texas State German Contests, Inc