Heinrich Heine Prize refers to three different awards named in honour of the 19th-century German poet Christian Johann Heinrich Heine: * ''Heinrich Heine prize of

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

'' * ''Heinrich Heine prize of the Ministry for Culture'' of the former GDR, which was assigned until 1990 * ''Heinrich Heine Prize'' of the "Heinrich-Heine-Gesellschaft" in Hamburg

Heinrich Heine prize of the city of Düsseldorf

Bundesarchiv Bild 145 Bild-F035073-0018, Marion Gräfin Dönhoff Friedenspreis des Buchhandels

The Heinrich Heine prize of the city of

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 ; starting from the year 2006, the 150th after the death of the poet, the city of Düsseldorf has doubled the prize sum to .

Recipients

* 1972

Carl Zuckmayer Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer. Life and career Born in Nackenheim in Rhenish Hesse, he was t ...

* 1974

Kito Lorenc Kito Lorenc (4 March 1938 – 24 September 2017) was a German writer, lyric poet and translator. He was a grandson of the writer and politician Jakub Lorenc-Zalěski. Lorenc attended the Sorbian boarding high school in Cottbus from 1952 to 1956 ...

* 1975 Pierre Bertaux * 1978

Sebastian Haffner Raimund Pretzel (27 December 1907 – 2 January 1999), better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and historian. As an émigré in Britain during World War II, Haffner argued that accommodation was impossible not on ...

* 1981

Walter Jens Walter Jens (8 March 1923 – 9 June 2013) was a German philologist, literature historian, critic, university professor and writer. He was born in Hamburg, and attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums from 1933 to 1941, when he gained his Ab ...

* 1983

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 28 June 1912 – 28 April 2007) was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under ...

* 1985

Günter Kunert Günter Kunert (; 6 March 1929 – 21 September 2019) was a German writer. Based in East Berlin, he published poetry from 1947, supported by Bertold Brecht. After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Biermann ...

* 1987 Marion Gräfin Dönhoff * 1989

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant featur ...

* 1991

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobilit ...

* 1993

Wolf Biermann Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song "Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976. Early life Biermann was b ...

* 1996

Władysław Bartoszewski Władysław Bartoszewski (; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of th ...

* 1998

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

* 2000 W. G. Sebald * 2002

Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors writing in German today and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voi ...

* 2004

Robert Gernhardt Robert Gernhardt (13 December 1937 – 30 June 2006) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist and poet. Life Robert Gernhardt was born the son of a judge and a chemist in Tallinn, where his family was part of the Baltic German minority. I ...

* 2006 ''not awarded'' * 2008

Amos Oz Amos Oz ( he, עמוס עוז; born Amos Klausner; 4 May 1939 – 28 December 2018) was an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, and intellectual. He was also a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 onw ...

* 2010

Simone Veil Simone Veil (; ; 13 July 1927 – 30 June 2017) was a French magistrate and politician who served as Health Minister in several governments and was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. ...

* 2012

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...

* 2014

Alexander Kluge Alexander Kluge (born 14 February 1932) is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director. Early life, education and early career Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany. After growing up durin ...

* 2016 A. L. Kennedy * 2018

Leoluca Orlando Leoluca Orlando (born 1 August 1947), is an Italian politician, Mayor of Palermo for over twenty years and President of Italian Federation of American Football (FIDAF). He is best known for his strong opposition to the Sicilian Mafia during his m ...

* 2021 * 2022

Yurii Andrukhovych Yurii Ihorovych Andrukhovych ( uk, Юрій Ігорович Андрухович) is a Ukrainian prose writer, poet, essayist, and translator. Biography In 1985, Andrukhovych co-founded the Bu-Ba-Bu poetic group, which stands for «burlesque ...

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-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

, the rector of the

Heinrich Heine University Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

, 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 20 May 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 (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

'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"''.Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf – News, Events und Bürgerservice
In a reply of 7 June 2006, Mr Erwin expressed his solidarity with Handke.

Heinrich Heine Prize of the Heinrich-Heine-Gesellschaft

Since 1965, the Heinrich-Heine-Gesellschaft ("Heine Society") of Hamburg has presented a literary prize at irregular intervals. It consists of a bronze object "Die Schere der Zensur" ("the scissors of censorship") made by sculptor Bert Gerresheim.

Recipients

*1965

Max Brod Max Brod ( he, מקס ברוד; 27 May 1884 – 20 December 1968) was a German-speaking Bohemian, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is best remembered as the friend and biog ...

*1972

Hilde Domin Hilde Domin (27 July 1912 – 22 February 2006) is the pseudonym of Hilde Palm (née Löwenstein), a German lyric poet and writer. She was among the most important German-language poets of her time. Biography Domin was born in 1909 in Cologne as ...

*1976

Marcel Reich-Ranicki Marcel Reich-Ranicki (; 2 June 1920 – 18 September 2013) was a Polish-born German literary critic and member of the informal literary association Gruppe 47. He was regarded as one of the most influential contemporary literary critics in the fi ...

*1981

Martin Walser Martin Walser (; born 24 March 1927) is a German writer. Life Walser was born in Wasserburg am Bodensee, on Lake Constance. His parents were coal merchants, and they also kept an inn next to the train station in Wasserburg. He described the ...

*1984

Peter Rühmkorf Peter Rühmkorf (25 October 1929 – 8 June 2008) was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature. Rühmkorf's literary career started in 1952 in Hamburg with the magazine ''Zwischen den Kriegen'' ("Between the Wars") ...

*1989 Kay und

Lore Lorentz Lore Lorentz (12 September 1920 – 22 February 1994) was a German Kabarett artist and standup comedian. She was born in Mährisch-Ostrau, Czechoslovakia (today Ostrava in the Czech Republic) as Lore Schirmer. She studied history, German literatur ...

*1992

Sarah Kirsch Sarah Kirsch (; 16 April 1935 – 5 May 2013) was a German poet. Biography Sarah Kirsch was originally born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony but had changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's an ...

*1994

Tankred Dorst Tankred Dorst (19 December 1925 – 1 June 2017) was a German playwright and storyteller. Dorst lived and worked in Munich. His farces, parables, one-act-plays and adaptations were inspired by the theatre of the absurd and the works of Ionesco ...

*1997

Ruth Klüger Ruth Klüger (30 October 1931 – 5 October 2020) was Professor Emerita of German Studies at the University of California, Irvine and a Holocaust survivor. She was the author of the bestseller ''weiter leben: Eine Jugend'' about her childhood in ...

*2000

Bernhard Schlink Bernhard Schlink (; born 6 July 1944) is a German lawyer, academic, and novelist. He is best known for his novel '' The Reader'', which was first published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. He won the 2014 Park Kyong-ni Prize. Ear ...

*2003

Dieter Forte Dieter or dieter may refer to: * A person committed to dieting People Dieter is a German given name (), a short form of Dietrich, from ''theod+ric'' "people ruler", see Theodoric. Given name * Dieter Althaus (born 1958), German politician ...

*2006

Alice Schwarzer Alice Sophie Schwarzer (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal '' EMMA''. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-ab ...

*2009

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

*2012

Dževad Karahasan Dževad Karahasan (born 25 January 1953) is a Bosnian writer, essayist and philosopher. Karahasan was awarded with Herder Prize and Goethe Medal for his writings. In 2020, the city of Frankfurt awarded him the Goethe Prize. Early life Karahas ...

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

Marks Marks may refer to: Business * Mark's, a Canadian retail chain * Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain * Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members * Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...

Recipients

* 1953

Stefan Heym Helmut Flieg or Hellmuth Fliegel (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym (). He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II. In ...

* 1957

Herbert Nachbar Herbert Nachbar (12 February 1930 in Greifswald – 25 May 1980 in East Berlin) was a German writer resident in the German Democratic Republic. Life Herbert Nachbar was the son of a fisherman in Greifswald, Province of Pomerania (1815–1945 ...

* 1959

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

Wieland Herzfelde Wieland Herzfelde ( Herzfeld; 11 April 1896 – 23 November 1988) 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 He ...

* 1960

Gerd Semmer Gerhard Friedrich "Gerd" Semmer (born December 21, 1919 in Paderborn ; † November 12, 1967 in Ratingen ) was a German poet, columnist, songwriter and translator. He is considered the "father of the German protest song". Biography Born in Pad ...

* 1961 Armin Müller * 1962

Hermann Kant Hermann Kant (; 14 June 1926 – 14 August 2016) was a German writer noted for his writings during the time of East Germany. He won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1967. He served the Stasi as an informer under the codename ''IM Martin''. Early life ...

* 1963

Heinz Kahlau Heinz Kahlau (6 February 1931 - 6 April 2012) was a German writer. He is remembered as one of the best known lyric poets in the German Democratic Republic. He wrote song lyrics, dramas and prose pieces. He was particularly well known for his ...

* 1964

Christa Wolf Christa Wolf (; née Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist.
Barbara Gard ...

Hugo Huppert Hugo Huppert (5 June 1902 in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia – 25 March 1982 in Vienna) was an Austrian poet, translator and writer. Decorations and awards * 1964: Heinrich Heine Prize (Ministry of Culture of the GDR) * 1967: National Prize of the G ...

* 1965

Heinz Knobloch Heinz Knobloch (3 March 1926 – 24 July 2003) was a German writer and journalist, who spent most of his professional career working in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Life Early years Knobloch was born in Dresden, the son of a ...

* 1970 Rolf Recknagel * 1971

Volker Braun Volker Braun (born 7 May 1939 in Dresden) is a German writer. His works include ''Provokation für mich'' (''Provocation for me'') – a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, ''Die Kipper'' (''The Dumpers ...

* 1972

Stephan Hermlin Stephan Hermlin (; 13 April 1915 – 6 April 1997), 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. ...

, Hans Kaufmann * 1973

Ulrich Plenzdorf Ulrich Plenzdorf (; 26 October 1934 – 9 August 2007) was a German author and dramatist. Life Born in Berlin, Plenzdorf studied Philosophy in Leipzig, but graduated with a degree in film. He found work at DEFA. He became famous in both East a ...

* 1974

* 1975

Irmtraud Morgner Irmtraud Morgner, (22 August 19336 May 1990), was a German writer, best known for works of magical realism concerned predominantly with the role of gender in East German society. Life Irmtraud Morgner was born in 1933 in Chemnitz, the daughter o ...

, Eva Strittmatter * 1976 Dieter Süverkrüp * 1977

Heinz Czechowski Heinz Czechowski (7 February 1935 – 21 October 2009) was a German poet and dramatist. At the age of ten, Czechowski survived the highly destructive bombing of his birthplace of Dresden. After training in surveying and graphic design, he studied ...

* 1978 Egon Richter * 1979 Jürgen Rennert * 1984 Bernt Engelmann (?), John Erpenbeck * 1985

Peter Gosse Peter Gosse (born 6 October 1938 in Leipzig) 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 freelance writer in E ...

* 1987

Luise Rinser Luise Rinser (30 April 1911 – 17 March 2002) was a German writer, best known for her novels and short stories. Early life and education Luise Rinser was born on 30 April 1911 in Pitzling, a constituent community of Landsberg am Lech, in Upper B ...

* 1988

* 1990 Hans-Eckardt Wenzel

References

External links

Der Heine-Preis der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf
(official website)

(regulations regarding awarding of the prize)
Zum Heinrich-Heine-Preis der DDR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heine, Heinrich Culture in Düsseldorf German literary awards Heinrich Heine Municipal awards Awards established in 1972 Awards established in 1965 Awards established in 1953 Awards disestablished in 1990 East German awards

Heinrich Heine prize of the city of Düsseldorf

Recipients

Controversy concerning Peter Handke

Heinrich Heine Prize of the Heinrich-Heine-Gesellschaft

Recipients

Heinrich Heine prize of the Ministry for culture of the GDR

Recipients

See also

References

External links