The focus group is a team of deaf experts from different regions in Germany. They support the project as DGS language experts and also act as disseminators within the community. Many of them have supported the project since its beginning and several also were contact persons during the data collection phase of the project.

Jörg Apel

Jörg Apel has been self employed as a qualified lecturer for German Sign Language since 2015. Furthermore he gives guided tours through the city of Hildesheim and at the museum. He is a member of guild of city guides and at the AGV-Hildesheim. He supports the DGS-Korpus project because German Sign Language is our language.

He works as a contact person for the DGS-Korpus project together with Dana Apel. They are responsible for the regions Lower Saxony (south and east) and northern Hesse.

Annette Bach

Annette Bach is a multimedia-designer and worked part-time as a lecturer for German Sign Language at the adult education centre. Since October 2009 she has been working as a freelance lecturer for German Sign Language at the adult education centre and at the university of Ulm. Furthermore she does employee training courses in DGS for companies and helds courses for the staff of the institute for Sign Language in Baden-Württemberg gGmbh.

She also teaches interpreters at the institute in Winnenden. As a contact person in the DGS-Korpus project she ist responsible for the region of Baden-Württemberg.

Harro Drescher

Harro Drescher has been a freelance lecturer of German Sign Language since 2012. He is fourth-generation deaf/Deaf and is therefore also well acquainted with the different DGS variants of several generations. He also has a very good knowledge of Turkish Sign Language (TID). He teaches in the Aachen area. In the DGS-Korpus project, he would like to contribute to share and permanently preserve the most important components of his native language in DW-DGS, the digital dictionary of DGS.

Ludwig Herb

Ludwig Herb, born 1986, was raised in Baden-Württemberg, but has been living in Berlin for seven years now, where he is currently studying Deaf-Studies. Additionally he is an expert advisor on educational issues for the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

He is also part-time freelancing as a sign language instructor. Currently he is holding honorary posts in institutions such as the der Deutschen Gehörlosen-Jugend (German Deaf-Youth) and at the Jugendverein Berlin jubel3 (Youth Club Berlin jubel3).

Agnes Kraft

Agnes Kraft is a dental technician with many years of experience. Since 1993 she has been working avocationally as a Sign Language lecturer at the adult education centre in Kiel. Since 2009 she has been working in that job at various institutes: Theodor-Schäfer-Berufsbildungswerk, Berufschule Schleswig, Landesförderzentrum Hören and Institut für berufliche Aus- und Fortbildung. Furthermore she is the chair woman of the state-wide workgroup of lecturers for Gebärdensprache Schleswig-Holstein e.V. She wants to support the work in the DGS-Korpus project since she thinks this project is important for the community of the deaf/Deaf. As a contact person in the DGS-Korpus project she is responsible for the region Schleswig-Holstein.

Michael Meyer

Michael Meyer has been working for many years in the field of mining machinery as a CAD engineer and has recently - to meet a new challenge - changed to the field of functional fittings in the furniture industry. He was born and raised in Dortmund and is a born-and-bred "Borusse", being an assessor for public issues for the deaf/Deaf BVB-Fanclub.

As as side job he is teaching computer classes for the hearing impaired at the Fortbildungsakademie für Wirtschaft (Academy for Further Education of Economics), as well as in handicapped people working environment integration projects. As his wife is a nationally certified sign language instructor, they work from time to time together with regard to sign language. He is describing himself as an imaginative signer, who loves to tell fairy tales to his children in sign language.

Thomas Opitz-Plotzki

From 1993 to 2000 Thomas Opitz-Plotzki worked as a student assistent at the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf at the University of Hamburg. Since 2000 he has worked as a teacher at the support centre for Hard-of-Hearing and deaf/Deaf in Bremen. Since october 2009 he was tasked by the Institute for German Sign Language as a contact person for Bremen and Lower Saxony (west).

Conny Ruppert

Conny Ruppert (deaf/Deaf-Coda) was raised in Berlin, but has been living in Munich for many years now. In 2003 she has co-founded the sign language school Blickfang GbR. She is working as a nationally certified sign language lecturer assigned by different educational institutions and as lecturer for the training of interpreters and sign language lecturers at GIB.

She also teaches further education courses. Lately she started working at the Landshut University of Applied Sciences as a lecturer. Sign language and linguistics are not only her field, but also her passion. To her the Corpus Project is a one-time opportunity to work passionately for her mother language.

Peter Schaar

Peter Schaar, living near Saarbrücken, completed a three-year extra-occupational apprenticeship at the GIB in Nürnberg as a nationally certified lecturer for German Sign Language in mid 2012. As a full-time technician in a foundry. As a side job he is accepting some assignments related to our native language at several institutions. He took part in our corpus data collection as an informant and actively participates in our DGS-Feedback. "I gladly contribute to this big and important project, so that the signers have more support! And foremost I am excited about what is in store for us with this dictionary."

Pia Steinbach

Pia Steinbach was trained as a visual merchandiser and has worked in this field for many years. Since 2005 she has been working at the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau as a teacher for German Sign Language. In 2008 she successfully completed the extra occupational training as an officially recognised teacher for DGS in Nuremberg. Being a mother of two deaf/Deaf daughters she also volunteers at the Zwickau sports club. Togehter with Matthias Mauersberger she works as a contact person covering the region of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Pia and Matthias both became involved in this project, because the preservation, resarch and the passing on of the Saxon dialect of German Sign Language means a lot to them.

Antje Hebst

Antje Hebst is an accomplished social assistant who is working in deaf/Deaf counselling. Born in Thuringia she was raised in a deaf/Deaf family and is living in Rostock since 2003. In 2016 she has been elected 2nd deputy chairperson of the regional association of the deaf/Deaf in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Gehörlosen Landesverband Mecklenburg- Vorpommern e.V. ).

In 2011 Antje Hebst was an informant for the DGS-Korpus-project and continued her support as a member of the projects contact group until December 2020.

The DGS-Korpus team would like to thank all contact persons for their contribution before and during the recordings for the DGS corpus!

Dana Apel

Dana Apel works as a state-approved lecturer for German Sign Language at the LBZH Hildesheim and also gives courses at the adult education centre among others. As contact person for the DGS-Korpus project she and Jörg Apel are responsible for the regions Lower Saxony (south and east) and northern Hesse.

Jörg Apel

Jörg Apel has been self employed as a qualified lecturer for German Sign Language since 2015. Furthermore he gives guided tours through the city of Hildesheim and at the museum. He is a member of guild of city guides and at the AGV-Hildesheim. He supports the DGS-Korpus project because German Sign Language is our language.

He works as a contact person for the DGS-Korpus project together with Dana Apel. They are responsible for the regions Lower Saxony (south and east) and northern Hesse.

Annette Bach

Annette Bach is a multimedia-designer and worked part-time as a lecturer for German Sign Language at the adult education centre. Since October 2009 she has been working as a freelance lecturer for German Sign Language at the adult education centre and at the university of Ulm. Furthermore she does employee training courses in DGS for companies and helds courses for the staff of the institute for Sign Language in Baden-Württemberg gGmbh.

She also teaches interpreters at the institute in Winnenden. As a contact person in the DGS-Korpus project she ist responsible for the region of Baden-Württemberg.

Katharina Busch

Katharina Busch works as a judicial officer and avocationally as lecturer for German Sign Language at the adult education centre and at the University of Munich. Together with Thomas Mitterhuber she works as a contact person for the region southern Bavaria.

Andreas Costrau

Andreas Costrau (*1971) descends in 3rd generation from a Deaf family. He is native in DGS and Berliner by conviction. As state-approved lecturer for sign language he works as a freelancer at the Humboldt University, at the Evangelische Hochschule and is owner of the company gebaerdenservice.de. He furthermore works half-time at the Katholische Hochschule in Berlin. His motto is: "We need more people who know sign language!" As a contact person for the DGS-Corpus project he is responsible for the region Berlin/Brandenburg.

Katja Fischer

Katja Fischer has been working as a teacher for sociology, culture and language of the Deaf for many years. Apart from working freelance she is employed at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. On her homepage www.katjafischer.de you can learn more about her various activities. Together with Andreas Costrau she works as a contact person for the region of Berlin and Brandenburg.

Margit Hillenmeyer

Margit Hillenmeyer has worked as an expert at the Gehörlosen Institut Bayern. She has the leadership over the education of sign language lecturers and the communication course. Before that she had given lessons in sign language to various target audiences for 15 years. She was appointed by the Bavarian State Ministry for education and cult as a member of the curriculum committee "German Sign Language" as subject in the support centre for Hard-of-Hearing from 2001 to 2004. From 2002 to 2004 she was a member of the task force for the development of a job description for sign language lecturer. From 2004 to 2005 she was engaged in a workshop on "Development of a multimedia-based grammar of DGS". As a contact person for the DGS-Corpus project she and Michael Striffler are in charge of the region northern Bavaria.

Ege Karar

Ege Karar studied social work/social pedagogy in Potsdam and is currently working at the Institute for Language and Communication Sciences at the RWTH Aachen in the project DESIRE (Deaf and Sign Language Research Team). There he is involved in the development of the internet-platform  "Vibelle". Together with Leo Klinner he is responsible as a contactperson for the region Cologne.

Thimo Kleyboldt

After his studies of education in Frankfurt and Hamburg Thimo Kleyboldt started working as a research assistant in various projects on DGS grammar and sign language dictionaries for technical terms for specialised areas at the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf. In the beginning of 2010 he joined the DGS-Corpus team. His key activities within the project are technical support on the census places in Germany. He furthermore works at the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf and holds a teaching position. He is also a contact person for the Hamburg and Northern Lower Saxony.

Leo Klinner

Leonid Klinner worked as a lecturer for Sign Language at regional institute for Sign Language North-Rhine Westphalia. He founded the Mimika-Online and works as a self-employed multimedia-designer, Sign Language lecturer and communication trainer for various institutes, companies and organisations. As a contact person for the DGS-Corpus project he and Ege Karar are responsible for the region Cologne.

Agnes Kraft

Agnes Kraft is a dental technician with many years of experience. Since 1993 she has been working avocationally as a Sign Language lecturer at the adult education centre in Kiel. Since 2009 she has been working in that job at various institutes: Theodor-Schäfer-Berufsbildungswerk, Berufschule Schleswig, Landesförderzentrum Hören and Institut für berufliche Aus- und Fortbildung. Furthermore she is the chair woman of the state-wide workgroup of lecturers for Gebärdensprache Schleswig-Holstein e.V. She wants to support the work in the DGS-Korpus project since she thinks this project is important for the community of the deaf/Deaf. As a contact person in the DGS-Korpus project she is responsible for the region Schleswig-Holstein.

Matthias Mauersberger

Matthias Mauersberger has been working as a self-employed interior decorator in his own shop since 2002. The shop has been carried on in his family for 4 generations. As a state approved lecturer for German Sign Language he works at the adult education center in Leipzig, at the Sächsische Landesschule for hearing impaired as well as at various other institutes as a freelancer. Matthias is a also involved as a volunteer in "Deaf-Medien Verein Leipzig 1957" e.V. In the DGS-Corpus project he and Pia Steinbach are working in the region Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt.

Roland Metz

Roland Metz has been working as an architectural draughtsman for 19 years in a former private engineering company and is currently at the estate and construction management agency of Rheinland-Pfalz. He works avocationally as a lecturer for Sign Language in a modern and deafpride-oriented association in Mainz. He founded the association called "Sign Times in 2007. Furthermore he teaches at the University of Applied Sciences RheinMain in Wiesbaden and at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. He is advisor for Sign Language and culture of the Deaf at the Nacional Association on the Deaf Rheinland-Pfalz. As a contact person he is responsible for the regions Hesse (south), Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. "I absolutely want to support the unique DGS-Corpus project. It is my goal to make DGS more transparent, to document it professionally and fundamentally and to research it and by this prevent it from future dying."

Thomas Mitterhuber

Thomas Mitterhuber studied communication science and works as online editor. He gained experience in the field of sign language videos while working as a presentor at "spectrum11" and as a sign language actor for the Gebärdenwerk. As contact person for the DGS-Corpus project he and Katharina Busch are responsible for the region Southern Bavaria.

Thomas Opitz-Plotzki

From 1993 to 2000 Thomas Opitz-Plotzki worked as a student assistent at the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf at the University of Hamburg. Since 2000 he has worked as a teacher at the support centre for Hard-of-Hearing and deaf/Deaf in Bremen. Since october 2009 he was tasked by the Institute for German Sign Language as a contact person for Bremen and Lower Saxony (west).

Pia Steinbach

Pia Steinbach was trained as a visual merchandiser and has worked in this field for many years. Since 2005 she has been working at the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau as a teacher for German Sign Language. In 2008 she successfully completed the extra occupational training as an officially recognised teacher for DGS in Nuremberg. Being a mother of two deaf/Deaf daughters she also volunteers at the Zwickau sports club. Togehter with Matthias Mauersberger she works as a contact person covering the region of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Pia and Matthias both became involved in this project, because the preservation, resarch and the passing on of the Saxon dialect of German Sign Language means a lot to them.

Michael Striffler

Michael Striffler is from Nuremberg and works as a purchasing agent in the field of accounting control. Additionally he is involved in the community of the Deaf just like he does for DGS-Corpus at the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf. The development of German Sign Language is very important to him and the high cultural value throughout Germany is very valuable and inextinguishably.

He and Margit Hillenmeyer have been working together as contact persons for the region northern Bavaria since May 2009. "I would like to support this amazing, unique project and be very engaged in it."

Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel was a participant in the european panel project "Deaf Studies on the Agenda" at the IGKG in Hamburg. Since 2000 he has been working as a project manager  in the interpreter service for the Deaf at Deaf Association Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V. Since 1996 he has taught courses in German Sign Language, mainly for the rural adult education at at the educational centre Parchim e.V. In this institute he managed in cooperation with LDZ Zwickau a one-time education for Sign Language interpreters from 1998-2000 und in 2002/2003 a one-time education as course instructor for Sign Language for Deaf.

He is the honorary CEO of the Deaf Association Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V.. From 2002-2004 he was a member of the working group that developed a  job description for Sign Language teachers. Since January 2010 he has been working as a contact person for the DGS-Corpus project for the region Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.