Culture Award for Kathleen Wermke

Hape Kerkeling, who received the Jacob Grimme Award, the main prize of the "Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache", in 2025, recalled his mother right at the beginning of his acceptance speech in Baden-Baden: "She taught me to love the German language. She never missed a punchline and showed me that language also includes laughing and crying." For him, language is more than just meaning, it is emotion.

For Professor Kathleen Wermke, Head of the Zentrum für vorsprachliche Entwicklung und Entwicklungsstörungen (ZVES) at Würzburg University Hospital, language even begins in the womb. As soon as they are born, babies imitate the speech melody of their mothers in order to establish an emotional bond with them. According to Wermke, these vocal messages are like a primal song from which spoken language develops. The scientist would therefore like to encourage adults, not just parents, to simply listen to babies, appreciate their vocal messages and accept that this emotional language is the path to speech.

Worldwide Unique Database of Baby Sounds

On 27 September 2025, Kathleen Wermke was awarded the "Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache" by the Eberhard Schöck Foundation in the "Institutionspreis" category. Over the years, a globally unique database of baby sounds has been created at the ZVES. This data makes it possible to analyse normal speech development as well as influencing factors such as malformations, hearing disorders or environmental conditions, to identify developmental disorders at an early stage and to develop targeted support measures.

"Speech and voice diagnostics can now be used to treat hearing disorders in babies at a very early stage," says Wermke. She is delighted to have been recognised with the award. It is not easy to be recognised in the public eye in view of the current global problems.

Pioneer in the Transitional Area between Biology, Medicine and Linguistics

"As a pioneer in a field of research that still has many unanswered questions for us," Professor Helmut Glück, linguist and member of the jury, honoured her in his laudatory speech. "She has asked essential questions, some of which she has answered." Kathleen Wermke is a basic researcher in a transitional area between biology, medicine and linguistics.

"She discovered that it is initially simple tone curves that characterise baby crying, tone curves consisting of melodies, rhythms, volumes and timbres," the linguist continued. And she was able to show that these basic building blocks differ depending on which language the mother spoke during pregnancy. It also plays a role whether she played an instrument. She also investigated the question of whether baby crying can be used to draw conclusions about developmental disorders in the baby's brain.

Two Honours in One Year

The "Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache" is already the second honour for Kathleen Wermke this year. In February 2025, her non-fiction book "Babygesänge. Wie aus Weinen Sprache wird" (Molden Verlag) was voted the best science book of the year in the medicine/biology category in Austria. In the book, she takes her readers on an entertaining and well-founded journey into the mysterious world of baby sounds on over 200 pages with numerous audio examples.

With the support of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation, she is currently working on a specialised book in which she combines her theories on pre-linguistic development with modern concepts of the language revolution and her clinical experience.

About the "Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache"

The "Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache" is awarded by the Eberhard Schöck Foundation together with the German Academy for Language and Poetry in three categories. Every year since 2001, it has honoured individuals, institutions and initiatives that have rendered outstanding services to the German language. The Jacob Grimm Prize (main prize) has so far been awarded to well-known personalities such as science journalist Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, Udo Lindenberg, Cornelia Funke, Loriot, Ulrich Tukur and the Fantastic Four.

More information about the "Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache"