This study focused on institutional planning and implementation of the German Village Competition Program since 1961. The main purpose of our study was to learn lessons from the German rural village development model that Taiwan sponsored as the ”Classical Village Contest.” Several relevant research findings can be concluded as follows. The Taiwan government should: (1) strengthen the professionalism and objectivity of the ”village contest jury,” (2) introduce an integrated review checkpoint to synthesize different village performances, (3) establish a set of standardized operational and appraisal procedures for all candidate villages, (4) encourage and enlarge more rural villages to participate in the ”Classical Village Contest,” (5) enhance the links between the village competition program and the integrated rural development strategy at the national policy level.