Dialects: Pupils' day centred on hotspots for young people
04/21/2026Class 8b from Maria-Ward-Gymnasium Aschaffenburg won the competition at the Lower Franconian Dialect Institute's pupils' day. Their audio guide for their home town won over the jury.
Five classes with around 140 pupils took part in the 18th Pupils' Day organised by the Lower Franconian Dialect Institute (Unterfränkisches Dialektinstitut, UDI). The classes in grades 7 to 9 had been given work assignments in advance: They had to develop an audio guide in the form of a location rally through their school towns.
The audio guide was not supposed to lead to the usual sights in Aschaffenburg and Schweinfurt, but to hotspots that are of particular interest to young people. The pupils were allowed to use standard and youth language in addition to their local dialect.
Presentation in the philosophy building
On 17 March 2026, the time had come for the classes to present their audio guides to the jury in the Philosophy Building at the University of Würzburg. Here are the placings:
- The winner was class 8b from Maria-Ward-Gymnasium Aschaffenburg. In their audio guide "Aschebersch - more than just a castle and school!", they presented a "Boulinghall" and further hotspots for young people. As a prize, the class won a guided tour of the Mainfranken studio of Bayerischer Rundfunk.
- Class 7b from Wilhelm-Sattler-Realschule Schweinfurt came in second place with their audio guide "Schwaiferder Goldstügg". They won a studio tour of the Würzburg broadcasting centre.
- The 8e class from Wilhelm-Sattler-Realschule travelled to "Schweinfurt's hotspots". The prize for third place: a tour of the fishery of the district of Lower Franconia in Maidbronn with tasting.
The jury consisted of UDI director Professor Wolf Peter Klein, Lower Franconian district curator Dr Riccardo Altieri, Wolfgang Mainka, who guides visitors through Würzburg as a night watchman in Franconian dialect, Dr Monika Fritz-Scheuplein from the UDI and Dr Michael Breyl from the Institute of German Philology.
A reporter from the Mainfranken studio of Bayerischer Rundfunk was present throughout the morning. Her report on the UDI student day was broadcast the following day in the programme "Mittags in Mainfranken" on Bayern 1.
In the afternoon, the programme included a learning circle on dialect research and an interactive dialect quiz with ten questions, which the classes could take part in via smartphone.
Lower Franconian Dialect Institute UDI
The UDI is a linguistic-dialectological project at the University of Würzburg supported by the district of Lower Franconia. It provides the public with expert information on questions relating to the Lower Franconian dialect. Its users include teachers and people who work in local history, write texts in dialect or are generally interested in dialect issues. Further information can be found on the UDI website (in German only). https://unterfraenkisches-dialektinstitut-wue.de/
