(Interview from 2008)

Dagmar Möbius

Dr. Sylva-Michèle Sternkopf “definitely wanted to do something with languages", and decided on teacher training for English and German. "I didn't want to go too far from home, so I opted for TU Dresden," she explains.

"My first memory of that time is getting pretty frantic on the tram," says Dr. Sternkopf, originally from Zschopau in the Ore Mountains. That was in 1992. However, she quickly found her feet as a student in the city. So well, in fact, that she managed English studies, American studies and German studies all the same time. "I also took all kinds of additional courses on linguistics, PR, and communications." She worked at the conference center in London's Britannia International Hotel for a year, helping out wherever she was needed and interpreting at international conferences. "I also worked in a bar," she smiles. "You have to have lived abroad if you want to be successful in my industry," she firmly believes.

In July 1998, she not only obtained her master's degree, she also passed her first Staatsexamen (state examination) for teachers. She then went on to teach English and German at high school in her home town of Flöha. During her two-year period as a trainee teacher, she often had doubts about whether she would be happy as an English teacher in the long run. "I love the language, and it hurt when I had to repeat 'who are you?' for the umpteenth time in the fifth grade class," she says. Sternkopf also speaks Russian and Dutch, and worried that she would eventually lose the language skills she had acquired during numerous periods abroad. An idea then took root. "Teacher training doesn't do you much good in business," she realized, "but I've always been interested in advertising." In 2000, shortly after she passed her second state examination, her son Paul was born. He was named after his grandfather – and this was not the only nod to family tradition.

Dr. Sylva-Michèle Sternkopf still travels frequently for work, most often to the UK, but also to Dresden at least once a month. "The Neustadt district is still the best." Sternkopf is now the mother of two children; her daughter Lilly is four. Balancing all her obligations requires excellent family management. But that is also a tradition in the Ore Mountains. Growing up in the Sternkopf home, the children sat for hours in their father's woodworking shop. A love of Ore Mountain woodworking is therefore in Dr. Sternkopf's blood. However, the "erotic angels", created in 2006, came about more or less by chance. "I would sit in the kitchen at night with my sister, and we would have a glass of wine and draw sketches of angels. Later, we baked quirky 3D models out of salt dough and showed them to the current managing director at our father's former workplace, Gundolf Berger." He was the one who helped bring the "erotic angels" to life.

Why does Sylva-Michèle Sternkopf think the Sternkopf angel collection has been so enthusiastically received? She believes the answer lies in a completely new creative form, which combines grace and sensuality with traditional Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) craftsmanship. "Red Ruby", "Black Beauty", "Pure Nature", and their angel sisters have already delighted a host of Christmas fans. "The angels have made us a national name, but our core business remains our international advertising and translation agency," says Dr. Sylva-Michèle Sternkopf. Language courses, seminars, translations, and advertising copy are her daily bread-and-butter. She is also responsible for product design and marketing strategies for the "erotic angels". It seems unlikely that she will ever teach high school again – although she enjoyed that a lot, too.

2020 update:
A lot has happened at Sternkopf since the article above was published 12 years ago. The family has welcomed another two children and Sylva Sternkopf has fulfilled her greatest lifelong dream. The Sternkopf angels are a global success, the translation business is booming, and the Dr. Sternkopf media group has made a name for itself as a marketing agency, managing advertising for a number of exciting companies from all over Saxony. Sylva Sternkopf and her husband bought Villa Gückelsberg in Flöha in 2005, and moved their agency there in 2006. What was intended purely as their business headquarters has become one of the most popular wedding venues in the region. Around 100 couples get married every year in the villa's historical drawing room or in the open air in the romantic pavilion. "I would never have dreamed that I would also become a wedding planner," laughs the doctor of English. "The mix we have today sounds crazy – weddings, angels, advertising agency, and translation firm – yet it makes perfect sense when I look at how we got here."

Contact:
Dr. Sylva-Michèle Sternkopf
Sternkopf Communications & Sternkopf Design
Fabrikweg 4
09557 Flöha
Tel.: +49-3726 – 7 92 91 90

Email: Dr. Sylva-Michéle Sternkopf

Web: Dr. Sternkopf

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