David and Holly Barkhymer from Brooklyn, New York, have won the first prize in Deutsche Welle's World Cup competition "At home with friends - at home with the Deutsche Welle".

"At home with friends" (in German: "Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden") is the slogan for the 2006 World Cup here in Germany.

The entry that took the first prize was a song David and Holly composed and produced themselves called "The Streets of Berlin". You can listen to it by clicking on the audio file at the bottom of this page.

Entries flooded in

Deutsche Welle had asked loyal listeners, viewers and users across the globe to explain what they felt connected them to Germany, host of this year's World Cup.

There were some 15,000 entries from all continents. Pictures, artwork, audio and video recordings, a website and all sorts of written contributions -- poems, essays and personal accounts of experiences with Germany and the Germans -- all flooded in.

High quality

A jury of five representating DW radio, DW-tv and our communications department chose the three winning entries. The other two were an oil painting by a Nigerian listener, Liman Mahdi Gashua, from Damatura, and a work of calligraphy by Iranian listener, Niaz Raisi, from Nikshar.

The jury were so impressed by the high quality of the three winning entries that they decided to award the first prize, a trip to Germany, by drawing lots. There will also be prizes for the other two.

A website in Romanian specially designed for the competition by Traian Constantin Predan from Bucharest was given a "special mention" by the jury, as was a poem written by Ye Zhilong in Guandong, China, and an essay from Elos Pereira de Oliveira from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Congratulations to the winners and we would like to thank everyone who wrote in and made the competition such a success.