The best class in Germany

Television series
Original title	The best class in Germany
Country of production	Germany
Year (s)	since 2008
Production ; company	Bavaria Entertainment
length	25 minutes
Episodes	265+ in 11 seasons
Broadcasting ; cycle	Mondays to Fridays
genre	Game show
Moderation	Karen Markwardt (2008); Thorsten Schorn (2008); Malte Arkona (since 2009);
First broadcast	March 19, 2008 on KiKA

The best class in Germany is a quiz program that is broadcast on KiKA and moderated by Malte Arkona . Since 2008, KiKA has shown a season every spring. According to the broadcaster, good general knowledge is particularly important for the questions .

Selection and application

Every 6th or 7th grade of a grammar school or a secondary school can apply for the broadcast with a video, a photo story or another type of presentation by the deadline. After the best applications had been selected, the selected classes had to qualify for the TV show in state-internal rounds in 2008. Since 2009, a total of 32 classes, selected by a jury, have taken part in the competition.

Shipment process

Weekly show

In every episode broadcast, two classes compete against each other in the weekly show . First, images are correctly assigned or put in the correct order. The first row - in which the two candidates selected by the class for the show sit - that wins the picture duel can choose their question chip with the questions and experiments. What questions are on the chips is not revealed. In the first round of the game, four questions from many different topics are asked alternately to both teams, including which ones about the experiments. There are four possible answers to each question. For each question, 20 students from the audience in the relevant class initially have ten seconds to cast their vote, but this is only known when the first row has also answered the question correctly. The class to which the question was asked only receives points (as many as there were correct answers, i.e. a maximum of twenty possible) if the candidate's answer was also correct. If this was wrong, the points of the class are forfeited, even if theoretically all students from the audience were correct. During the voting time, the students are not allowed to consult. Anyone who talks too much can be disqualified.

Both classes receive two jokers each at the beginning of the show . One of these is an expert joker , in which the candidates can ask a classmate from the audience who they think knows the answer. There is also the Duel Joker : If the class that uses the Duel Joker has more correct votes, these are credited as points, otherwise not.

Then, in the final round, questions are asked in which all 44 students - both classes and the candidates - give their votes. There the class receives the points from which more students have given the correct answer. If there is a tie, both classes get their points. In addition, the points are doubled or tripled for the last questions of each shipment.

Weekly finals

The four best teams of the week play in the weekly finals . In the first round there are five questions for all 88 students. Every correct answer in the class counts towards points. The two classes that have the most points at the end of this round move on to the next round and can continue playing. The other two teams are eliminated at this point. At the beginning of the second round, the candidates in the first row play for the jokers in the action game. The winners of the game have both jokers available for the main round, i.e. expert and duel jokers. The loser can only use the duel joker. Then the duel continues as in the weekly shows. The winner of the show moves into the superfinal.

Super finals

In the super finals, the winners of the weekly finals play against each other, with all students giving their votes. Prominent studio guests and well-known stars support moderator Malte Arkona with the experiments. In the main round, ten questions are asked, with each class having the opportunity to use the point boost once during the voting time. In this case, the points earned in the round are doubled. The two teams with the most points move on to the final round. The first class to answer three questions correctly receives the title “The best class in Germany”.

Participation

More than 700 classes applied for the first season, which corresponds to around 20,000 students. There were 400 applications for the second season, 32 of which were accepted. For the fourth season there was a record participation of over 2,450 school classes, which corresponds to three times the number of applicants compared to the third season.

winner

2008: 6a of the Königin-Luise-Gymnasium from Erfurt
2009: 6d of the grammar school in Kirchseeon
2010: 7b from the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Hamburg
2011: 6b of the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Oberschule in Berlin
2012: 6d of the Ferdinand-von-Miller-Realschule in Fürstenfeldbruck
2013: 7th of the CJD Jugenddorf-Christophorusschule from Rostock
2014: 7c from the CJD Christophorus School from Königswinter
2015: 7b from the Hoheluft high school in Hamburg
2016: 7b of the Prälat-Diehl-School from Groß-Gerau
2017: 6d of the Erasmus-Gymnasium from Grevenbroich
2018: 6/2 of the state high school Latina August Hermann Francke from Halle (Saale)
2019: 6e of the Helmholtz-Gymnasium from Essen

Prices

The 32 classes fight for a school trip to a major European city :

2008: Rome
2009: Madrid
2010: Rome
2011: London
2012: Paris
2013: Barcelona
2014: Amsterdam
2015: Copenhagen
2016: Lisbon
2017: Madrid
2018: Edinburgh
2019: Athens

From the 1st to the 9th season the runner-up won a trip to Berlin , in the 10th season to Hamburg , in the 11th season to Munich and in the 12th season back to Berlin.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic , the first-placed class received 10,000 euros in 2020 and the second-placed 5,000 euros. They could each use the money for a class trip of their choice, as soon as the conditions permit.

In addition, the classes in the game rounds receive cash prizes for the class fund according to the following scheme:

Weekly show:
- 2nd place: € 100
- 1st place: € 300
Week finals:
- 4th place: € 100
- 3rd place: € 200
- 2nd place: € 300
- 1st place: 400 €
Superfinals:
- 4th place: € 1,000
- 3rd place: € 1,000

Others

The qualification rounds took place within the federal state at special locations such as a cave, a cinema or a museum, while the later broadcasts took place in the studio in Cologne . There have been no qualifying rounds since season 2.
Until the superfinal, the sixth and seventh grades only meet separately in each game round.
The introduction for Malte Arkona will be spoken by Thomas Friebe .