Bundesliga Total!

This year, the Goethe-Institut is sponsoring Wunderbar Together, the year of German-American Friendship—a series of over 1,000 events in all 50 states celebrating the ‘shared history, values, and experience’ of both countries.

On March 22nd, Instituts in the San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington DC hosted students in three regional competitions to win a trip to Germany in their annual Bundesliga Total!

Bundesliga Total! is a contest held every year by the Goethe-Institut that invites middle and high school students from across the country to compete in challenges that test participants’ soccer knowledge and language ability during the Bundesliga season.

To play, classes watch highlights from the Bundesliga “Match of the Month” and answer questions in German related to the game’s outcome. The students then work together as a team to predict the outcomes of the next week’s games. The goal is to correctly predict as many outcomes as possible.

Representatives of the ten top teams in each region are invited to Bundesliga Festivals in San Francisco, Chicago, or Washington, DC, co-hosted by the Goethe-Institut and three world-famous German clubs: Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, and Schalke 04.

At the festival, participants compete for cool prizes in a series of contests that put their soccer expertise to the test. The grand prize winner in each region wins the trip of a lifetime to either Munich, Dortmund, or Gelsenkirchen to watch their favorite teams in action at a real Bundesliga game!

Representatives from the Central region met in Chicago, Illinois for a jam-packed day of soccer activities co-hosted by Borussia Dortmund. During the festivities, participants also had the opportunity to meet former Borussia Dortmund and German National Team player Patrick Owomoyela! The winning team from South Range High School in Canfield, Ohio, will be travelling to Dortmund to watch the Black and Yellows live!

Goethe-Institut Chicago hired me to photograph the events over the course of two days. I especially enjoyed photographing the students in Millennium Park participating in the more athletic portions of the activities. Here are some of my favorite shots: