The Lion Feuchtwanger Prize is a German literary prize for historical

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...

. It is awarded by the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

on 7 July, the anniversary of his birthday. It was endowed by Marta Feuchtwanger, the widow of

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. Feuchtwanger's J ...

. It was awarded annually between 1971 and 1992. Subsequently it has been awarded less regularly. The prize is worth €7,500 to the winner, whose identity is determined by a jury of three members.

Past winners

* 1971:

Hans Lorbeer Hans Lorbeer (15 August 1901 – 7 September 1973) was a German politician and writer. Life Hans Lorbeer was born as the illegitimate child of a worker girl in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in the Province of Saxony and grew up with foster parents in ...

* 1972:

Franz Fühmann Franz Fühmann (15 January 1922 – 8 July 1984) was a German writer who lived and worked in East Germany. He wrote in a variety of formats, including short stories, essays, screenplays and children's books. Influenced by Nazism in his youth ...

* 1973:

Hedda Zinner Hedda Zinner, or Hedda Erpenbeck-Zinner (20 May 1904 – 4 July 1994), was a German political writer, actress, comedian, journalist and radio director. Biography Hedda Zinner was born in Lemberg on May 20, 1904. She attended the Acting Acad ...

* 1974: Christa Johannsen * 1975: Heinz Kamnitzer * 1976:

Rosemarie Schuder Rosemarie Schuder (married Rosemarie Hirsch; July 24, 1928 – May 5, 2018) was a German writer. Life Rosemarie Schuder came from a middle-class family in Jena. She attended a girls' school and took the Abitur in 1947. Subsequently she worked a ...

* 1977: (none) * 1978:

Waldtraut Lewin Waldtraut Lewin (8 January 1937 – 20 May 2017) was a German writer, dramaturge and stage director. Life Waldtraut Lewin was born in Wernigerode, a small town on the northeastern flank of the Harz Mountains, roughly equidistant between Hanove ...

* 1979: Gerhard W. Menzel * 1980: Jan Koplowitz * 1981:

Günter de Bruyn Günter de Bruyn (; 1 November 1926 – 4 October 2020) was a German author. Life Günter de Bruyn was born in Berlin in November 1926; his father Carl was a Catholic from Bavaria. Günter served as a Luftwaffenhelfer and soldier in World War I ...

* 1982: Heinz Bergschicker * 1983: Gerhard Scheibner * 1984: Kurt David * 1985: Volker Ebersbach * 1986:

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 ...

* 1987: Sigrid Damm * 1988:

Eckart Krumbholz Eckart is a German surname, and may refer to: * Anselm Eckart (1721–1809), German Jesuit missionary * Carl Eckart * Dennis E. Eckart (born 1950), American lawyer, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives * Dietrich Eckart (1868–1923 ...

* 1989:

Walter Beltz Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

* 1990:

Horst Drescher Horst may refer to: Science * Horst (geology), a raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben People * Horst (given name) * Horst (surname) * ter Horst, Dutch surname * van der Horst, Dutch surname Places Settlements Germany * Horst ...

* 1991:

Brigitte Struzyk Brigitte Struzyk (born April 2, 1946, in Steinbach-Hallenberg, Thuringia as Brigitte Kraft) is a German writer. Life Brigitte Struzyk is a daughter of the musicologist Günther Kraft. She grew up in Weimar, graduated from high school there ...

* 1992:

Peter Härtling Peter Härtling (; 13 November 1933 – 10 July 2017) was a German writer, poet, publisher and journalist. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his major contribution to German literature. Biography Härtling wa ...

* 1998:

Eckart Kleßmann Eckart is a German surname, and may refer to: * Anselm Eckart (1721–1809), German Jesuit missionary * Carl Eckart * Dennis E. Eckart (born 1950), American lawyer, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives * Dietrich Eckart (1868–1923 ...

* 2000:

Michael Kleeberg Michael Kleeberg (born 24 August 1959 in Stuttgart), is a German writer and translator. He studied political science and modern history at the University of Hamburg and visual communication at the Kunsthochschule Hamburg. He lived in Rome, Ber ...

* 2002:

Robert Menasse Robert Menasse (born 21 June 1954) is an Austrian writer. Biography Menasse was born in Vienna. As an undergraduate, he studied German studies, philosophy and political science in Vienna, Salzburg and Messina. In 1980 he completed his PhD thesi ...

* 2004:

Edgar Hilsenrath Edgar Hilsenrath (April 2, 1926 – December 30, 2018) was a German-Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor. He wrote several fictional novels that gave an unvarnished view of the Holocaust which were partly based on his own experiences in a Nazi co ...

* 2009:

Reinhard Jirgl Reinhard Jirgl (born 16 January 1953 in East-Berlin) is a German writer. Biography Jirgl was born in Berlin-Friedrichshain. He became a skilled worker for electromechanics. Then he completed a degree in electronics at Humboldt University, Ber ...

German literary awards {{Germany-lit-award-stub