Ceremony October 18th 2021
Ceremony October 18th 2021
The German Book Prize is presented to the best German-language novel just before the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair as an annual award from 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. The Prize is intended to draw attention beyond national borders to authors writing in German, to reading and to the keynote medium of the book. Publishing companies can apply for the award by direct nomination of their titles. Unusually, titles still in production when applications are first invited can also be included in the selection process. Furthermore, the German Book Prize represents the guarantee of independent and competent prize judgement: the seven jurors will personally assess all the books that are submitted and that meet the criteria for consideration.
To ensure the greatest possible independence and transparency for the choice of the award-winner, the Börsenverein board has appointed the German Book Prize Academy with representatives of the book and media industry. Their most important task is the selection every year of the jury members who will choose the winner over the course of several selection stages. Organised by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the German Book Prize is also backed by partners from outside the industry. The partner of the Book Prize is the Deutsche Bank Foundation. In addition the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the City of Frankfurt am Main support the prize.
Announcement of the judges
10 a.m.
Announcement of the Longlist
10 a.m.
Announcement of the Shortlist
6 p.m.
Award ceremony
In september 2004, the board of the Börsenverein made its unique appointment of the German Book Prize Academy. Made up of representatives from the book industry and the arts as well as partners of the Prize, the advisory committee’s most important task is the annual selection of the jury. Publisher Karin Schmidt-Friderichs is president of the German Book Prize Academy.
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After training as a publishing manager, Juergen Boos studied business management in Mannheim. He worked for several years as a sales director with Droemersche Verlagsanstalt, Literarischer Verlag, Carl Hanser Verlag and at Springer Verlag in Berlin where he went on to become director of international sales. In 1997, he moved to Verlag Wiley-VCH as executive director of marketing/sales/distribution. He has been president of the Frankfurt Book Fair since April 2005.
Benedikt Föger is a publisher and author in Vienna. He was born in Ried im Innkreis in 1970 and studied biology and German language and literature in Vienna. He spent time researching at Oxford University and in Uruguay. Numerous academic publications. Science journalist (primarily for Spectrum, the online edition of Die Presse, and for Universum Magazin) and author ("Die andere Seite des Spiegels – Konrad Lorenz und der Nationalsozialismus", Czernin 2001, and "Konrad Lorenz – Biografie", Zsolnay 2003, dtv 2009). In 2002, he received the Österreichischer Förderungspreis für Wissenschaftspublizistik (Austrian Award for the Promotion of Science Journalism). Since 2004, he has been managing director of Czernin Verlag. In 2004, he was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for achievements in publishing. Since 2014, he has been president of the Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels.
Minister of State for Culture and Media and member of the Bundestag, Prof. Monika Grütters, was born in Münster and studied German, art history and political science at the Universities of Münster and Bonn. She gathered professional experience in the opera world, in publishing and in the museum world before taking on responsibility for art and cultural programmes in major companies.
From 1998 to 2013, she was chairwoman of the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor. Since 1999, he has been an honorary professor of cultural management at the Free University of Berlin.
Monika Grütters is the first deputy chairwoman of the CDU Berlin. From 1995 to 2005, she was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives, where she served as spokesperson for the science and cultural policy of the CDU. She has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2005. In the last legislative session, Monika Grütters served as chairwoman of the committee on culture and media. Since December 2013, she has been minister of state and the government’s commissioner for culture and media.
Dr Kristina Hasenpflug has been managing director and special representative of the Deutsche Bank Foundation in Frankfurt am Main since July 2016. After studying literary studies, history and politics, she earned a doctorate with her thesis on the poetry of Clemens Brentano. Following several years as a research assistant for the Freie Deutsche Hochstift – Frankfurter Goethemuseum (Goethe Museum in Frankfurt), in 2000, she became director of the “Art and Culture” and “Education” departments of the Wüstenrot Foundation, where she was responsible for, among other things, the focal points “Literature”, with the creation of a series for the preservation of literary heritage, “Documentary Photography” and “Architecture”, with a particular focus on reaching children and youths through broad educational programmes. She is active as a volunteer for, among others, the board of the Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Society of Friends and Sponsors of the University of Music and Performing Arts) in Frankfurt am Main.
Born in 1940 in Wroczaw, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann was appointed general director of the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt. After Germany’s reunification, he helped reorganise the national libraries in Leipzig and Frankfurt under the name of “Deutsche Bibliothek”. In 1999, Lehmann assumed the office of the president of the Preußischer Kulturbesitz foundation in Berlin. In April 2008, he took over the presidency of the Goethe-Institut from Jutta Limbach.
Christian Metz was born in 1975. In 2008, he earned his doctorate in German literature at Goethe University Frankfurt, in 2015, a postdoctoral qualification on the topic of tickling, becoming a private lecturer. He worked for many years as a research associate at Goethe University Frankfurt, with additional stations at the University of Tromsø and Cornell University and, more recently, Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Currently, he is at the University of Zurich. A literary critic for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk, he won the Alfred Kerr Prize for literary criticism in 2020. His most recent publications include "Poetisch Denken. Die Lyrik der Gegenwart" (2018), "Kitzel. Studien zur Kultur eines menschlichen Reizes" (2020) and "Beugung. Poetik der Dokumentation" (2020).
Rudolf Müller, born in Heilbronn in 1951, studied German language and literature and theatre studies in Cologne, where he subsequently worked at the Walther König bookstore. In 1989, he founded his own bookstore in Düsseldorf, which opened on 3 June, the anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s birth and Franz Kafka’s death. He is a member of, among others, the jury of the Düsseldorf Literature Prize, the expert group New Spanish Books and, since 1993, the literary advisory committee of the state capital Düsseldorf. In 2006, he was a founding member of the Heine Haus (Heine House) Düsseldorf.
Michael Münch has worked for Deutsche Bank for more than 25 years. He studied business administration in Cologne and began his career as a market researcher for the GfK in Nuremberg. In 1983, he moved to the bank, where he started out in marketing in the private banking division. Since 1990, he has been responsible for the bank’s charitable contributions. He was also appointed to the board of the Deutsche Bank Foundation in 1996, representing the fields of music, art and cultural education. The Deutsche Bank’s sponsorship of the Berlin Philharmonic also falls under his purview. As head of corporate responsibility for Germany, Michael Münch is responsible for Deutsche Bank’s domestic social commitment. He is also on the board of the Villa Romana e.V. and represents Deutsche Bank in the Arbeitskreis Kultursponsoring (AKS – Working Group for Arts Sponsorship).
Andreas Rötzer, born in Munich in 1971, studied philosophy, among other subjects, in Passau, Paris and Munich. From 1999 to 2003, he worked for the Munich-based publisher Matthes & Seitz, which, in 2004, he re-established in Berlin and has been directing since as majority shareholder. Matthes & Seitz Berlin publishes some 70 new releases annually, including German literature, French and Russian literature in translation as well as non-fiction books such as the series “Fröhliche Wissenschaft” and “Naturkunden”.
Karin Schmidt-Friderichs founded the publishing house Verlag Hermann Schmidt together with her husband in 1992. She manages the house’s marketing and distribution and, together with her husband, oversees its programme planning. She has been volunteering in the book sector since 2003, first as chairperson of the Berufsbildungsausschuss des Börsenvereins (Vocational Training Committee of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) and, from 2011 to 2016, as chairperson of the board of the Stiftung Buchkunst (Book Art Foundation). From 2018 to 2019 she represented the Börsenverein at the Deutsche Literaturkonferenz (German Literature Conference), from where she was sent to the Deutscher Kulturrat (German Cultural Council) as deputy speaker. Karin Schmidt-Friderichs was elected head of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association) at the Buchtage 2019 (2019 Book Days).
Felicitas von Lovenberg was born in 1974 and grew up in the Münsterland region. She graduated from the United World College of the Atlantic and studied in Bristol and Oxford. In 1998, Lovenberg joined the “Feuilleton” of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; beginning in 2008, she became the first woman to run its literature department and hosted the literary programme “lesenswert” on the television channel SWR Fernsehen. Since 2016, Felicitas von Lovenberg has been head of Piper Verlag. She lives with her family in Munich.
The German Book Prize is worth a total of 37,500 euros. The winner receives 25,000 euros, the other five shortlisted authors receive 2,500 euros each. The German Book Prize 2021 will be presented in the Kaisersaal at Frankfurt’s Römer on the evening of October 18th – a first event marking the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair. The six authors will not find out which of them is to receive the German Book Prize until the evening of the official presentation.
Publishing companies can nominate up to two German-language novels from their current or planned list to be considered for the award. The books must be published between October 2020 and September 2021 and be on sale in shops at the latest when the shortlist is announced on September 21st. The jury looks through all nominations and if necessary, requests additional titles that it considers to be suitable. On August 24th, 2021, the 20 titles nominated for the German Book Prize will be announced. It is from this narrower selection that the jurors then choose six titles for the shortlist which will be published on September 21st. The winner is announced during the prize ceremony on October 18th.
Publishers can submit their titles from February 9th until March 26th, 2021.