Penguin Random House | Munich, 01/26/2018

DK Verlag Donates Dictionaries for Displaced Persons

DK Verlag has donated 5,000 dictionaries to the Protestant Church’s “Innere Mission” in Munich. The German/Arabic dictionaries and “German as a foreign language” books have a retail value of around €50,000. They will support the charity in its work with refugees and asylum seekers. DK Verlag strongly believes that language plays a key role in successful integration.

DK Verlag’s gift to the Protestant Church’s Innere Mission in Munich had to be transported on eight pallets. The publisher donated 5,000 German/Arabic dictionaries and “German as a foreign language” books with a retail value of around €50,000 to the charity. They will support the charity in its work with refugees and asylum seekers.

The dictionaries rely heavily on visuals and show pictures of objects or situations as well as providing descriptions in German and Arabic. They are therefore particularly well suited to rapid language learning and for use in refugee work, said the publisher. The books can quickly help with communication problems, especially in specific everyday situations such as at the doctor’s, a pharmacy or railroad station.

At the presentation of the books, DK Verlag Managing Director Monika Schlitzer said that her international publishing house sees it as “its duty to also support integration locally as well.” She said that language in particular is “a very important key to understanding a new environment.” Their combination of words and images make the dictionaries “ideal for refugee work,” she said.

“Wonderful Support”

Andrea Betz, Head of the Refugees, Migration and Integration Assistance department at the Innere Mission, gave thanks for the extraordinary donation. She says the books will be distributed quickly. The first recipients will be the German courses held in facilities served by the Innere Mission. “The books are a wonderful support in learning German, and because of the way they are structured are especially suitable for children and teens,” says Betz, adding that the books are also ideal for their many volunteers, as they are “a valuable support in the search for specific everyday and technical terms.”

Innere Mission board member Günther Bauer was also delighted by the donation: “Language empowers the people who come to us to take first steps in their new environment.” In addition, the dictionaries also convey a concept of humanity that is established in our cultural region, with equal respect for women and men, and for different cultures.