THE BEGINNING

In the beginning, in the 1970s, it was no more than a beautiful dream of German translators of literary and non-fiction works. "How would it be" these book translators, who worked alone at their desks year after year, asked themselves "if we met every once in a while and worked together?"

Not necessarily as a translating team but above all to exchange experiences. Experiences with your own and the foreign language, the tricks of the translating trade: Where you can look up this or ask that. Or the many "new" words and expressions found in every language, for which you must come up with a similarly contemporary term.

THE HISTORICAL MODEL

After all, we have an example of such a fruitful collaboration in Toledo, Spain, in the Middle Ages. Whole teams of language experts translated the Greek classics, only extant in Arabic, into Latin.
They worked in small groups on different books but since they could exchange their individual insights, they found the work easy and achieved an equally high quality. After all, they always knew what their colleagues were doing.That was the historical model.

Heinrich Böll, patron of the Kollegium, on the occasion of the new building being opened in April 1985

FOUNDING THE EÜK

On 10 January 1978 the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium Nordrhein-Westfalen in Straelen e.V. was founded on the initiative of above all the Beckett translator Elmar Tophoven, born in Straelen, and Klaus Birkenhauer, then chair of the Verband der literarischen Übersetzer (Association of Literary Translators).From August 1980 there was a temporary house on Mühlenstrasse with six rooms and a constantly expanding library. In 1985 the EÜK moved into the present building consisting of five former residential houses at Kuhstrasse 15-17. In May 1992 this building was expanded by a sixth neighbouring house where above all workshops and continuing-education seminars are held.Thus the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium offers translators living and working space on nearly 2500 square meters with 30 furnished studio apartments. In addition to library and conference rooms, there are fully equipped kitchens where the guests can cook their own meals.