The German National Honor Society or Delta Phi Alpha (German: Deutsche Ehrenverbindung), seeks to recognize excellence in the study of German and to provide an incentive for higher scholarship. The Society aims to promote the study of the German language, literature and civilization and endeavors to emphasize those aspects of German life and culture which are of universal value and which contribute to man's eternal search for peace and truth.
The high school level is American Association of Teachers of German's (AATG) honor society for outstanding students of the German language, Delta Epsilon Phi. It was founded in Coral Gables, Florida, USA, in 1968, functioning as a branch of the AATG.
For induction, a student must have completed at least five semesters of German classes, with a 3.6 GPA on a 4.0 scale, calculated on a cumulative basis for all semesters. The student must also have at least a 3.0 GPA in their other classes, although this prerequisite varies by school.
Famous quotes containing the words german, national, honor and/or society:
“Have you never heard of German Becoming, of German Wandering, of the endless migratings of the German soul? Even foreigners know our word ‘Wanderlust.’ If you like, the German is the eternal student, the eternal searcher, among the peoples of the earth.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“All men are lonely. But sometimes it seems to me that we Americans are the loneliest of all. Our hunger for foreign places and new ways has been with us almost like a national disease. Our literature is stamped with a quality of longing and unrest, and our writers have been great wanderers.”
—Carson McCullers (1917–1967)
“The most spiritual human beings, assuming they are the most courageous, also experience by far the most painful tragedies: but it is precisely for this reason that they honor life, because it brings against them its most formidable weapons.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The institution of the family is decisive in determining not only if a person has the capacity to love another individual but in the larger social sense whether he is capable of loving his fellow men collectively. The whole of society rests on this foundation for stability, understanding and social peace.”
—Daniel Patrick Moynihan (20th century)