Emil Wiedemann from the Hardenberg Gymnasium (secondary school a bit like a British grammar school) in Fürth is one of the seven school-leavers in Bavaria chosen to live free of charge in the Maximilianeum building in Munich while they study at university there. (Article from the Fürther Nachrichten in German).
His father is a Protestant clergyman and his mother an interpreter for German and English; he doesnt think he inherited his brains from them, according to the paper (!). Three other Franconians, from Erlangen, Nuremberg and Bamberg, have also been chosen. They are among the 400 students who attained a mark of 1.0 in the Abitur, the university-entrance exam. They also passed another test and were tested orally. Emil was asked inter alia about texts by Wolfdietrich Schnurre, the Ottoman empire, and Turkeys application to join the EU. Applicants have to show social competence (perhaps not their ability to eat Leberkäse, a Bavarian speciality they ate after the test, and they have to have perfect manners and be Christians (which excludes quite a number of present students in Bavaria but the Stiftung Maximilianeum foundation was created by King Maximilian II in 1852 to help all students without regard to their financial means, and quite possibly the students were required to be Christians).
At the Maximilianeum, the students each have a room, use of a library, a music room with two grand pianos, a computer room and a basement room for parties (German Partykeller German houses usually have large basements.
Here are pictures of the present scholarship holders.
Famous earlier scholarship holders are Werner Heisenberg, Franz Josef Strauß and Carl Amery.
I’m sure it’s a good Britishism (or perhaps a “Continental English”-ism), but to these American ears a “school-leaver” sounds like what we call a “dropout”. I was trying to figure out what sort of scholarship would reward dropouts.
By the way, if you want to see an example of a fürchterliche DE>EN translation, check out this page on the Maximilianeum below. You can compare it to the original German and weep.
http://www.munich-info.de/portrait/p_maximilian_en.html
http://www.munich-info.de/portrait/p_maximilian_de.html
I had just seen a Wiki on German literature and a whole page in similar English, saying the author graduated from primary/elementary school. In BE we can’t say ‘graduate’ for school. I didn’t give much thought to the word – should have just written ‘students’ or ‘pupils’.
You had me worried about the Maximilianeum, because I have translated a book on it myself, and recently I found one of my guide-books on the Net, but this isn’t it. It seems to be in frames, despite the precise links. I think I could reconstruct the German from the English. The person just gave up with Landtagsfraktionen (parties in the Bavarian parliament), just like an MT program! BTW, the upper house, the Senate, was the only one in Germany, but it sat for the last time in December 1999, after a referendum.
Here it is:
>>The Maximilianeum was constructed by Friedrich Bürklein 1857 1874 at the high Isar skore. It is the monumental conclusion set of the Maximilianstraße and spans over Maximilianbrücke (built by Friedrich von Thiersch 1905) with the statue of Palas Athene (1906 by Franz Drexier).
Formerly Maximilianeum had been the residence of the foundation for gifted students and student`s hostel. Since 1949 it has a more adequate purpose and puts in the Bavarian Landtag and the second advisory association the senat. This combination is unique in the hole federal region. The menbers of the senat are sent from social, cultural, economic and local corporations. Maximilianeum is also the headquarter of all Landtagsfraktionen. Here you can visit and turn to our politicians!<<