Heinrich Heine Prize
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Heine Prize refers to two different awards named after the 19th century German poet Christian Johann Heinrich Heine
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was established on the occasion of Heine's 175th birthday. The honor is awarded to personalities who through their work in the spirit
of Heine's emphasis on the basic rights of man, advance social and political progress, mutual understanding of the peoples, or spread the idea that all people belong to the same group: mankind.
Beginning in 1972, the Heine prize was awarded every three years; since 1981 it was awarded every two years. The assignment of the Heine prize 1995 was shifted to the year 1996. Since that time the Heine prize is again awarded every two years. It is endowed with 25.000 euro; starting from the year 2006, the 150th after the death of the poet, the city of Düsseldorf has doubled the prize sum to 50.000 euros.
, the rector of the Heinrich Heine University
, and 5 other members (critics and literary experts). The 5 members from the city government have 1 vote each, the others 2 votes each.
On May 20, 2006, the jury voted 12:5 to award the prize to Peter Handke (the state representative was not present). The mayor congratulated Handke, and Handke accepted the award.
According to press reports, a majority of the city council of Düsseldorf did not want to award the prize to Handke, arguing that his (perceived) support of Slobodan Milošević
's oppressive regime was in blatant conflict with the spirit of the prize.
According to the statutes of the Heine prize, "the city council awards the prize based on the decision of the jury". On 2 June 2006, jury members Siegrid Löffler and Jean-Pierre Lefèbvre declared to leave the jury in protest.
In a letter to Düsseldorf's Mayor Joachim Erwin dated 2 June 2006, Mr Handke refused the award, as he did not want himself and his work to be "exposed again and again to the scorn of party politicians". In a reply of 7 June 2006, Mr Erwin expressed his solidarity with Handke.
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Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
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- Heinrich Heine prize of DüsseldorfDüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
- Heinrich Heine prize of the Ministry for Culture of the former GDR, which was assigned until 1990
Heinrich Heine prize of the city of Düsseldorf
The Heinrich Heine prize of the city of DüsseldorfDüsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
was established on the occasion of Heine's 175th birthday. The honor is awarded to personalities who through their work in the spirit
of Heine's emphasis on the basic rights of man, advance social and political progress, mutual understanding of the peoples, or spread the idea that all people belong to the same group: mankind.
Beginning in 1972, the Heine prize was awarded every three years; since 1981 it was awarded every two years. The assignment of the Heine prize 1995 was shifted to the year 1996. Since that time the Heine prize is again awarded every two years. It is endowed with 25.000 euro; starting from the year 2006, the 150th after the death of the poet, the city of Düsseldorf has doubled the prize sum to 50.000 euros.
Recipients
- 1972 Carl ZuckmayerCarl ZuckmayerCarl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
- 1974 Kito LorencKito LorencKito Lorenc , grandson of the Sorbian writer Jakub Lorenc-Zalěski, is a Sorbian-German writer, lyric poet and translator....
- 1975 Pierre BertauxPierre BertauxPierre Bertaux was a noted Resistant and French Germanist. While holding administrative positions, he also wrote on Friedrich Hölderlin...
- 1978 Sebastian HaffnerSebastian HaffnerSebastian Haffner was a German journalist and author. He wrote mainly about recent German history....
- 1981 Walter JensWalter JensWalter Jens is a German philologist, literature historian, critic, university professor, and writer.In the early 1940s, Jens joined the NSDAP. He denies having applied for membership actively and claims having been forced to join the party...
- 1983 Carl Friedrich von WeizsäckerCarl Friedrich von WeizsäckerCarl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the research team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership...
- 1985 Günter KunertGünter KunertGünter Kunert is a German writer who left the German Democratic Republic to live in the Federal Republic of Germany ....
- 1987 Marion Gräfin Dönhoff
- 1989 Max FrischMax FrischMax Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German-language literature after World War II. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human identity, individuality, responsibility, morality and political...
- 1991 Richard von WeizsäckerRichard von WeizsäckerRichard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker , known as Richard von Weizsäcker, is a German politician . He served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984, and as President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994...
- 1993 Wolf BiermannWolf BiermannKarl Wolf Biermann is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident.-Early life:Biermann's father, who worked on the Hamburg docks, was a German Jew and a member of the German Resistance....
- 1996 Władysław Bartoszewski
- 1998 Hans Magnus EnzensbergerHans Magnus EnzensbergerHans Magnus Enzensberger , is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.- Life :...
- 2000 W. G. SebaldW. G. SebaldW. G. Maximilian Sebald was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors and had been tipped as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature...
- 2002 Elfriede JelinekElfriede JelinekElfriede Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."-...
- 2004 Robert GernhardtRobert GernhardtRobert Gernhardt was a German writer, painter, caricaturist and poet.-Life:Robert Gernhardt studied Painting and German in Stuttgart and Berlin. He was one of the regular contributors to the satirical magazine Pardon, where he did the section Welt im Spiegel together with F. K. Waechter and F. W...
- 2006 Peter HandkePeter HandkePeter Handke is an avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright.-Early life:Handke and his mother lived in the Soviet-occupied Pankow district of Berlin from 1944 to 1948 before resettling in Griffen...
, nominated but declined - 2008 Amos OzAmos OzAmos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....
- 2010 Simone VeilSimone VeilSimone Veil, DBE is a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Health under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the European Parliament and member of the Constitutional Council of France....
Controversy concerning Peter Handke
The jury that decided the prize consisted of 5 members of the city government, 1 representative of the state of North Rhine-WestphaliaNorth Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, the rector of the Heinrich Heine University
Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf
Heinrich Heine University , located in Düsseldorf, Germany, is named after German poet and political thinker Heinrich Heine, who was born in Düsseldorf in 1797. It became a full-fledged university in 1965 and currently comprises faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, mathematics and natural...
, and 5 other members (critics and literary experts). The 5 members from the city government have 1 vote each, the others 2 votes each.
On May 20, 2006, the jury voted 12:5 to award the prize to Peter Handke (the state representative was not present). The mayor congratulated Handke, and Handke accepted the award.
According to press reports, a majority of the city council of Düsseldorf did not want to award the prize to Handke, arguing that his (perceived) support of Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
's oppressive regime was in blatant conflict with the spirit of the prize.
According to the statutes of the Heine prize, "the city council awards the prize based on the decision of the jury". On 2 June 2006, jury members Siegrid Löffler and Jean-Pierre Lefèbvre declared to leave the jury in protest.
In a letter to Düsseldorf's Mayor Joachim Erwin dated 2 June 2006, Mr Handke refused the award, as he did not want himself and his work to be "exposed again and again to the scorn of party politicians". In a reply of 7 June 2006, Mr Erwin expressed his solidarity with Handke.
Heinrich Heine prize of the Ministry for culture of the GDR
The Heinrich Heine prize of the Ministry for culture of the GDR 1950 donated and once annually awarded for lyric works and works of literary journalism. The height of the prize amounted to 15,000 MarksEast German mark
The East German mark commonly called the eastern mark , in East Germany only Mark, was the currency of the German Democratic Republic . Its ISO 4217 currency code was DDM...
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Recipients
- 1953 Stefan HeymStefan HeymHelmut Flieg was a German-Jewish writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to the part of his native Germany which was, from 1949–1990, German Democratic Republic...
- 1957 Herbert NachbarHerbert NachbarHerbert Nachbar was a German writer resident in the German Democratic Republic.-Life:...
- 1959 Heiner MüllerHeiner MüllerHeiner Müller was a German dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht...
, Wieland HerzfeldeWieland HerzfeldeWieland Herzfelde was a German publisher and writer. He is particularly known for his links with German avant-garde art and Marxist thought, and was the brother of the photo montage artist John Heartfield, with whom he often worked.-Life:His parents were Franz Held, a writer, and Alice Stolzenberg... - 1960 Gerd Semmer
- 1961 Armin Müller
- 1962 Hermann KantHermann KantHermann Kant is a German writer born in Hamburg noted for his writings during the time of East Germany. He won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1967.-References:...
- 1963 Heinz Kahlau
- 1964 Christa WolfChrista WolfChrista Wolf was a German literary critic, novelist, and essayist. She is one of the best-known writers to have emerged from the former East Germany.-Biography:...
, Hugo Huppert - 1965 Heinz Knobloch
- 1970 Rolf Recknagel
- 1971 Volker BraunVolker BraunVolker Braun is a German writer. His works include Provokation für mich -- a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, Die Kipper , and Das ungezwungne Leben Kasts .-Life:Volker Braun, who worked in...
- 1972 Stephan HermlinStephan HermlinStephan Hermlin , real name Rudolf Leder, was a German author. He wrote, among other things, stories, essays, translations, and lyric poetry and was one of the more well-known authors of former East Germany.- Life :...
, Hans KaufmannHans KaufmannHans Kaufmann is a Swiss politician, member of the Swiss National Council and business consultant.- Political career : He was first elected to the Swiss National Council in 1999 as a member of the Swiss People's Party of the Canton of Zurich... - 1973 Sarah KirschSarah KirschSarah Kirsch is a German poet.She was born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony. She changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's anti-semitism. She studied biology in Halle and literature at the Johannes R. Becher Institute for Literature in Leipzig. In...
, Ulrich PlenzdorfUlrich PlenzdorfUlrich Plenzdorf was a German author and dramatist.-Life:Born in Berlin, Plenzdorf studied Philosophy in Leipzig, but graduated with a degree in film... - 1974 Kito LorencKito LorencKito Lorenc , grandson of the Sorbian writer Jakub Lorenc-Zalěski, is a Sorbian-German writer, lyric poet and translator....
- 1975 Irmtraud MorgnerIrmtraud MorgnerIrmtraud Morgner, , was a German writer, best known for works of magical realism concerned predominantly with the role of gender in East German society.-Life:...
, Eva StrittmatterEva StrittmatterEva Strittmatter was a German writer of poetry, prose, and children's literature. Her poetry books sold millions of copies, making her the most successful German poet of the second half of the 20th century.... - 1976 Dieter Süverkrüp
- 1977 Heinz Czechowski
- 1978 Egon Richter
- 1979 Jürgen Rennert
- 1984 Bernt Engelmann (?), John Erpenbeck
- 1985 Peter GossePeter GossePeter Gosse is a German poet, prose author and essayist.-Life:Peter Gosse first completed a study of high frequency technology in Moscow. After an occupation as an engineer, he worked as a free lance writer in East Germany from 1968. Since 1985, he was a lecturer of poetry at the "Johannes R...
- 1987 Luise RinserLuise RinserLuise Rinser was a German writer.-Early life and education:...
- 1988 Peter RühmkorfPeter RühmkorfPeter Rühmkorf was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature....
- 1990 Hans-Eckardt Wenzel
See also
- German literatureGerman literatureGerman literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...
- List of literary awards
- List of poetry awards
- List of years in literature
- List of years in poetry