The German Translators’ Fund was founded in 1997. Its seat is the ‘Liter-arisches Colloquium Berlin’.

Its statutory purpose is to, ‘promote the art of translating and therefore the creation of high-quality German-language versions of foreign literature, inter-national understanding, language culture and literary life’.

Twice every year the Fund grants scholarships and travel allowances to liter-ary translators.

Eligible for scholarships are translators of foreign publications into German if these works require high-level proficiency and creative literary translation skills.

For the first time in 2003, the Fund has sponsored resident working periods at the European Translators’ College in Straelen.

Another new scholarship programme is the Johann-Joachim-Christoph-Bode-Stipend, which finds mentors who will support translators with a particular translation project.