09/08/2022 04:19 (act 09/08/2022 04:19)
Georg Büchner, who named the literary prize ©APA/dpa
It is one of the most important literary awards in the German-speaking world. Today, Tuesday, the German Academy of Language and Poetry reveals the secret of who will receive the Georg Büchner Prize this year. According to an Academy spokeswoman, the prize, worth €50,000, will be ceremonially presented on November 5 at the State Theater in Darmstadt.
Since 1951, the Academy has awarded the prize to writers who write in German. According to the statutes, the awardees must “stand out in a special way through their works and creations” and “have made a significant contribution to the formation of contemporary German cultural life”. The award is funded by the Federal Government, the State of Hesse and the City of Darmstadt.
Winners include Max Frisch (1958), Günter Grass (1965) and Heinrich Böll (1967) and more recently Rainald Goetz, Marcel Beyer, Jan Wagner, Terézia Mora, Lukas Bärfuss, Elke Erb and in 2021 Austrian Clemens J. Setz. Poet Erb was the eleventh woman to receive the award in 2020.
It is named after the playwright and revolutionary Georg Büchner (“Woyzeck”). He was born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1813 and died in Zurich in 1837.