This article is about the culture prize "The Sonning Prize". For the music prize - see Léonie Sonning Music Prize

Léonie Sonning Music Prize

The Léonie Sonning Music Prize, or Sonning Award, which is recognized as Denmark's highest musical honor, is given annually to an international composer or musician. It was first awarded in 1959 to composer Igor Stravinsky...

The Sonning Prize (Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

: "Sonningprisen") is awarded biennially for outstanding contributions to European culture. A committee headed by the rector of the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

 decides among candidates proposed by European universities. The prize amounts to 1 mio DKK

Danish krone

The krone is the official currency of the Kingdom of Denmark consisting of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is subdivided into 100 øre...

 (~135,000 €

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

). The prize award ceremony is held on April 19 (Sonning's birthday) at the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

. The prize was established by will of the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 editor and author Carl Johan Sonning (1879–1937). It was first awarded in 1950 and subsequently every second year from 1959.

Sonning Prize laureates

Year	Recipient	Field	Nationality
2010	Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger , is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.- Life :...	author
2008	Renzo Piano Renzo Piano Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...	architecture
2006	Ágnes Heller Ágnes Heller Ágnes Heller is a Hungarian philosopher. A prominent Marxist thinker at first, she moved onto a liberal, social-democratic position later in her career...	philosophy
2004	Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum is a video artist and installation artist of Palestinian origin, who lives in London.- Lebanon :...	creative arts
2002	Mary Robinson Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...	UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
2000	Eugenio Barba Eugenio Barba Eugenio Barba is an Italian author and theatre director based in Denmark. He is the founder of the Odin Theatre and the International School of Theatre Anthropology, both located in Holstebro, Denmark.-Biography:...	theatre
1998	Jørn Utzon Jørn Utzon Jørn Oberg Utzon, , AC was a Danish architect, most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon became only the second person to have received such recognition for one of his works during his lifetime...	architecture
1996	Günter Grass Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...	author
1994	Krzysztof Kieślowski Krzysztof Kieslowski Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...	film
1991	Václav Havel Václav Havel Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...	author and statesman
1989	Ingmar Bergman Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...	theatre and film
1987	Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...	philosophy
1985	William Heinesen William Heinesen Andreas William Heinesen was a poet, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands.- His Writing :The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen's writing. He is famous for having once called Tórshavn "The Navel of the World". His writing focuses on contrasts between darkness and...	author
1983	Simone de Beauvoir Simone de Beauvoir Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...	author
1981	Dario Fo Dario Fo Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...	theatre
1979	Hermann Gmeiner Hermann Gmeiner Hermann Gmeiner was an Austrian philanthropist and the founder of SOS Children's Villages.- Life :...	founder of the SOS Children's Villages SOS Children's Villages SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria...
1977	Arne Næss Arne Næss Arne Dekke Eide Næss was a Norwegian philosopher, the founder of deep ecology. He was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo....	philosophy
1975	Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...	politology
1973	Karl Popper Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...	philosophy
1971	Danilo Dolci Danilo Dolci Danilo Dolci was an Italian social activist, sociologist, popular educator and poet. He is best known for his opposition to poverty, social exclusion and the Mafia on Sicily, and is considered to be one of the protagonists of the non-violence movement in Italy...	social worker
1970	Max Tau Max Tau Max Tau was a German-Norwegian writer, editor, and publisher noted for his contribution to promoting literary exchange between Germany and Norway, especially in the context of reconciliation after World War II.-Biography:...	author
1969	Halldór Laxness Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...	author
1968	Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...	author
1967	Willem A. Visser't Hooft Willem Visser 't Hooft Willem Adolph Visser 't Hooft was a Dutch theologian who became the first secretary general of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and held this position until his retirement in 1966.- Biography :...	theology
1966	Laurence Olivier Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...	actor
1965	Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi Richard Nikolaus Eijiro von Coudenhove-Kalergi was an Austrian politician, geopolitician, philosopher and count of Coudenhove-Kalergi...	author and statesman
1964	Dominique Pire Dominique Pire Dominique Pire was a Belgian Dominican friar whose work helping refugees in post-World War II Europe saw him receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958...	theology
1963	Karl Barth Karl Barth Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...	theology
1962	Alvar Aalto Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...	architecture
1961	Niels Bohr Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...	physics
1960	Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...	philosophy
1959	Albert Schweitzer Albert Schweitzer Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...	philosophy
1950	Sir Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...	author and statesman