Ceremony October 13th 2025
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2025
Prize winner
The jury has decided: The winner of the German Book Prize 2025
D orothee Elmiger prevailed against Kaleb Erdmann: Die Ausweichschule (park x ullstein), Jehona Kicaj: ë (Wallstein Verlag), Thomas Melle: Haus zur Sonne (Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Fiona Sironic: Am Samstag gehen die Mädchen in den Wald und jagen Sachen in die Luft (Ecco Verlag), Christine Wunnicke: Wachs (Berenberg Verlag).
She will receive 25,000 euros in prize winnings; the five finalists will each receive 2,500 euros. The winner was determined in several selection stages. The seven members of the jury reviewed a total of 197 titles published between October 2024 and 16 September 2025.
A longlist of 20 titles was then compiled from these novels. From this list, the jurors selected six titles for the shortlist. The Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels – the Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association – awarded the German Book Prize 2025 to the best German-language title of the year to coincide with the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair.