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News and Updates
NEW: Changes and
updates for 2026
Houstonfest Scholarships
Scholarships at State
Houstonfest history
Teacher-to-teacher tips
Tips for Pair Discussion
Arrival at Kingwood High School
Lunch options
State promo video contest
Daily log of changes to
State-qualifier list
Contest
promo video #1 (students from one school tell why they
love contest)
Contest promo
video #2 (one student tells why she loves contest)
Contest promo
video #3
(hilarious 2024 State-winning submission from our own Klein Oak High School!)
Contest
promo video #4 (2025 State-winning submission from
Cedar Ridge High School)
Photo gallery
Important Dates
Mon., Jan. 12, 2026, 4:00 p.m.: Application for
transportation grants from the Houston Saengerbund opens (IF grants are approved
for 2026); link will be sent to teachers.
Fri., Jan. 16, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Application for
transportation grants from the Houston Saengerbund closes (IF grants are
approved for 2026).
Wed., Jan. 21, 2026, 11:59
p.m.: Houstonfest registration
spreadsheet due for regular price of $15/student (payment does not have
to be mailed until 1/28).
Wed., Jan. 28, 2026, 11:59
p.m.: Houstonfest registration spreadsheet
due
for late price of $20/student. Deadline to postmark Houstonfest payment.
Sat., Jan. 31, 2026, 9:00 a.m.: Submission of entries in the 7 virtual Houstonfest events due (get link to
Google Form from your teacher).
Tue., Feb. 3, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Remote
judging of the 7 virtual Houstonfest events ends.
Wed., Feb. 4, 2026, 10:00 p.m.: Houstonfest changes (adds,
drops, substitutions) due. After this point, no more changes will be allowed.
Sat., Feb. 7, 2026:
Houstonfest,
Kingwood High School, Houston.
Fri., Feb. 13, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: State
online registration due for "early bird" price of $15/student (payment does not
have to be mailed until 2/21).
Wed., Feb. 18, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: State
online registration due
for
regular price of
$20/student (payment does not have to be mailed until 2/21).
Sat., Feb. 21, 2026, 9:00 a.m.: Submission of entries in the 7 virtual State events due (get
the link to a
Google Form from your teacher). Also,
Mary El-Beheri Memorial Scholarship and Sandra Dieckman GTHS Memorial
Scholarship
applications due (to submit the application, get the link to a Google
Form from your teacher). Deadline to postmark your State payment.
Mon., Feb. 23, 2026, 8:00 p.m.:
Entries in
State promotional video
contest
due to State director.
Tue., Feb. 24, 2025, 11:59 p.m.: Remote
judging of the 7 virtual State events ends.
Sat., Feb. 28, 2026:
Texas State German Contest,
Texas State
University, San Marcos.
Sat., Mar. 7, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Houstonfest
Scholarship applications due.
Sun., Mar. 15, 2026: Gail Cope
State Scholarship applications due.
between Thu., Jan. 1 and Thu., Apr. 30, 2026: submit
Gail Cope Teacher Grant applications.
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Teacher-to-Teacher Tips
This is the place for teachers to share
tried-and-true strategies for preparing
students for Houstonfest. If you have a tip you'd like to share, submit it
to the
contest director.
Houstonfest director Rustin Buck, now retired from teaching,
is willing to visit your school to make a presentation about Houstonfest to
your classes or your German Club. Contact him to arrange a date.
Sign-Up List
I'm not sure how everyone handles having the students
sign up for events, but here is a sign-up
list that has spaces for all events offered at Houstonfest (meant to be
printed and filled in by hand, although I guess you could type in it, too):
sign-up list in Word (updated for 2026)
sign-up list as PDF
(updated for 2026)
After talking to my classes about what Houstonfest is, I designated one morning a few days later when I
would hang up
these lists around the room 30 minutes before school starts, and students
could come in to sign up for what they want to do, first-come, first-served.
We continued filling them up during classes throughout the day. This
was
usually in October for me -- some may want to start earlier or later.
Even if you have a different method, the list may be
useful for you because it has all events listed with the correct number of
slots that are available for each. For group events that have no
maximum size (folk dance, skit, etc.), I included a number of
slots that I thought would be at the upper end of how many kids might want
to sign up.
- submitted by Rustin Buck
Pass auf! Study
Guide
Brand new as of September 2025:
-
Main
Study Guide
incorporating the formerly separate lists of Erdkunde vocabulary
and proverbs for the Odds & Ends category. The document will be
updated in late November/early December 2025 and annually each fall
thereafter as we continue to build and update the question bank.
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Novice Study List specific to contest year 2026. A new Novice study
list will be published each fall tailored to the exact items that are in
that year's Novice question sets.
Since 2017 there was been a designated special topic for each
year. See more information on the Pass auf!
Rules Page, Rule #8. The special topic for 2026 is
Expressionism in the arts of
the German-speaking world. Starting in 2025,
questions about the special topic are included in a fifth category,
Current Events & Special Topic. Past topics were the Protestant
Reformation (in 2017 in honor of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of
his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517), the
German-Speaking World 1914-1945 (in 2018 inspired by the 100th anniversary of the
end of World War I), German-Americans (2019), German-Texans (2020), no
Pass auf! contest in 2021, Bach/Beethoven/Brahms (2022), Scientists
in the D-A-CH-FL Länder - Space, Medicine, Math (2023), UNESCO World
Heritage Sites in D-A-CH (2024), and Die Wende (in 2025, inspired by
the 35th anniversary of German reunification).
Source
of Choral Music
cpdl.org - lots
of free PDFs of choral music; just look up a German composer by last name.
- submitted by Laura Braun
Sources of Poetry/Prose
Selections
gedichte7.de (found
and posted by Rustin Buck on 9/1/2025: excellent collection of poems,
evidently put together and commented upon by a single hobbyist in
Düsseldorf; has a few non-German-language authors mixed in, but overwhelming
majority of poets are contest-eligible)
Projekt
Gutenberg (inexhaustible compendium of literature that is out of
copyright!)
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When is the next Houstonfest?
Saturday,
February 7, 2026 Where
is Houstonfest?
Kingwood High School
2701 Kingwood Dr.
Kingwood, TX 77339
Link to Texas State German Contest
Texas
State German Contest on Facebook
Texas
State German Contest 40th Anniversary Facebook Group |