More than 1000 schools applied to the fourth round of the competition with their cultural projects. Seven specialist juries in the areas of fine arts, architecture and cultural history, film and new media, literature, music, opera, dance and theatre perused the 390 participants in the final round and selected the most convincing examples of how schools and cultural institutions can work together in an innovative and sustained manner.

This year's winners include a conspicuous number of all-day schools. In addition to elementary schools, university-track and non-university track high schools, and vocational schools, four special schools and their projects are among the prize-winners. The spectrum of cultural partners is also broad and includes smaller music and youth art schools, and district cultural institutions, along with renowned centres of culture such as Dresden's Semper Opera and the Deutsche Symphonic Orchestra Berlin.

The Deutsche Bank Foundation is a main sponsor of this initiative by the Kulturstiftung der Länder. „KIDS TO OLYMPUS! has established itself as a beacon of cultural education for children and young people, and stimulates schools and culture partners to develop new ideas," explains Michael Münch, member of the Deutsche Bank Foundation's board. "We are pleased with the wide variety of exciting projects that were submitted to the competition and which document the cultural and musical commitment at a multitude of schools."

The EUR 5,000 special prize for intercultural dialogue from the Deutsche Bank Foundation goes to Hamburg. In their project "Bir varmis, bir yokmus – once upon a time, never upon a time", elementary school pupils of a bilingual German-Turkish class at the Heinrich Wolgast school worked with Kulturladen St. Georg, a municipal culture centre, to write their own musical, which handles the children's adventures and experiences during a class trip to Istanbul in an authentic, funny way, venturing into fantasy as it progresses – with the whole play presented in two languages on stage.

The 32 prizes – awarded to projects from all over Germany in each area for grades 1-4, 5-9, 10-13 and one for all ages – were awarded at a ceremony at Berlin's House of World Cultures on 19 September 2008. The winners were given their awards – along with 1,000 euros each – by prominent presenters such as the prima ballerina Katja Wünsche.

The Kulturstiftung der Länder grants 1,000 euros to each selected project, and Deutsche Bank awards a matching amount to all winning projects locally. The prizes are intended to continue to the project or carry out other cultural projects at the respective schools, and are awarded by the local Investment & Finance Centres to underscore Deutsche Bank's regional commitment in this area.

The KIDS TO OLYMPUS! programme itself was also honoured at this year's ceremony, as a "Selected Site 2008". A panel of experts chose it as a winner in the "365 sites in the land of ideas" competition, which for the last three years – under the sponsorship of Federal President Horst Kohler – has promoted Germany as an excellent place to do business within the framework of the "Germany – Land of Ideas" initiative, which itself is co-sponsored by Deutsche Bank.