At the beginning of the autumn semester of 1999, I was named professor of Germanic philology (particularly of modern German) at the University of Helsinki, and at the same time I became director of the department of German. I worked as director until the 2010 merger of departments, when Germanic philology became part of the Department of Modern Languages, and after that I remained director of studies until I retired in 2014. My working time was quite evenly divided between teaching and supervision, research and administrative tasks. Right at the beginning, I participated in a leadership course which gave me many insights, and during the first spring semester I gradually began to understand ‘wie der Hase läuft’ i.e. how to get things moving smoothly. A three-month Wiedereinladungs scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation gave me some breathing space from departmental routines: I took a leave of absence and visited the universities of Augsburg and Passau and the IDS ­– Institute of German Language in Mannerheim. I was a month in each and gave many presentations on one of the focal fields of my research, pragmatic phraseology.

The greatest moment nevertheless is perhaps in April 2007 when I received a surprise call from the German Academic Exchange Service: I had been awarded the 2007 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm prize. It is an annual award of recognition for foreign Germanic philologists. The prize was awarded at an event in Berlin on June 16, 2007 by Dr Thomas Götz, who was later the German Ambassador in Helsinki between 2011 and 2014 and a popular speaker at academic events.

Thanks to the sunny day of the ceremony, my husband also became a fan of Berlin, and as a result we bought a second home in Berlin a few years later—a great place for research even in retirement. The prize included a large research grant, which enabled me to spend a period of research at the university of my choice. Consequently, I spent May 2008 at Leipzig University, and the corpus that I could access there has spawned several articles. However, in the spring of 2008 there was also a huge influx of master’s theses due to the end of the transition period in the degree reform process. My days were spent researching at the university and my evenings in reading Master’s theses, of which I read 14 in three weeks! And so we move on to the next peak moment: For me the most enjoyable aspect of teaching has always been supervising theses and dissertations. My diligence was also noticed at the Department for Modern Languages: in 2011 I was awarded a prize in recognition of my supervisory work for master’s theses.

Unforgettable top moments were also anniversary symposiums and their publications. The best moments of the 60th anniversary symposium included, in addition to the academic programme, the performance of the Germanic choir. I was speechless with joy when at my wish Einojuhani Rautavaara’s choral piece Ludus verbalis osat 1 ja 2, Personalia ja Temporalia, which plays with linguistic concepts, was included in the programme. Unforgettable was also the symposium dedicated to me and my colleague Jarmo Korhonen in honour of our retirement. At the same time, I was given a 65th birthday album whose preparation had been successfully kept secret from me.

I retired in good spirits, and I continue to research and supervise, to the degree that I am able, on an emeritus contract.

• Award of the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm prize to Irma Hyvärinen, the Finnish Embassy in Berlin, June 27, 2007