The Ludwig Börne Prize (german: Ludwig-Börne-Preis, links=no) is a

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. M ...

that is awarded annually by the Frankfurt-based Ludwig-Börne-Stiftung. It is one of the most important of its kind in German-speaking countries.

Objective and methods

In 1992 the banker and publicist Michael A. Gotthelf established a foundation that annually awards the Ludwig-Börne-Preis to a German-speaking author, acknowledging his or her outstanding performances in the fields of essays, reviews and reportage. Thus, the foundation celebrates the memory of the Frankfurt author, revolutionary democrat and political journalist

Ludwig Börne Karl Ludwig Börne (born "Loeb Baruch"; 6 May 1786 – 12 February 1837) was a German-Jewish political writer and satirist, who is considered part of the Young Germany movement. Early life Karl Ludwig Börne was born Loeb Baruch on 6 May 178 ...

(1786–1837) and his works. A judge is nominated by the foundation board, for the sole responsibility of deciding who will win this award. This judge, moreover, makes a speech in the winner’s honor. The prize is worth 20,000 euros and its presentation takes place in St. Paul's Church in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. In 2010 the foundation for the first time awarded a Börne Honorary Medal to

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 ...

for his lifetimes achievements.

Foundation board

Founder and chairman of Ludwig-Börne-Stiftung is Michael A. Gotthelf. The foundation board is made up of

Salomon Korn Salomon Korn (born 4 June 1943 in Lublin, Poland) is a German architect and an Honorary Senator of University Heidelberg. Since 1999 he serves as Chairman of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main and since 2003 as Vice president of the Centr ...

(chairman of the Jewish community in Frankfurt),

Peter Feldmann Peter Manuel Feldmann (born 7 October 1958) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). On 25 March 2012, he was elected Mayor of Frankfurt as successor of Petra Roth (CDU). On 6 November 2022, he was recalled, with 95% of th ...

(mayor of Frankfurt),

Ina Hartwig Ina Hartwig (born 11 July 1963) is a German writer, literature critic and academic lecturer. From July 2016, she has been ''Kulturdezernentin'' in Frankfurt, the city councillor responsible for culture and science. Early life and education Har ...

(head of the Frankfurt culture department),

Hubert Burda Hubert Burda (born 9 February 1940) is a German billionaire publisher. He is the owner, publisher and general partner of Hubert Burda Media, a global media company of more than 600 media products, including websites, print magazines and other br ...

( Hubert Burda Media) and

Thomas Bellut Thomas Bellut (born 8 March 1955) is a German journalist. From 2012 to 2022, he was the director (German: '' Intendant'') of the TV channel ZDF. Early life and education Bellut was born in Osnabrück. After graduating from the school Antonian ...

(

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

director general), ().

Award winners

*1993: Joachim Kaiser, editor *1994: Marie-Luise Scherer, author *1995:

, publicist and literary critic *1996: Joachim C. Fest, publicist, author and contemporary historian *1997: , philosopher and Protestant theologian *1998:

Josef Joffe Josef Joffe (born 15 March 1944) is a former publisher-editor of '' Die Zeit'', a weekly German newspaper. His second career has been in academia. Appointed Senior Fellow of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in 2007 (a ...

, publicist, publisher and lecturer *1999:

Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt (born 2 May 1928) is a French writer and translator of German origin. Biography Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt was born in Reinbek near Hamburg, into a Jewish family of magistrates converted to Protestantism. His fa ...

, author and translator *2000: no award *2001:

Rudolf Augstein Rudolf Karl Augstein (5 November 1923 – 7 November 2002) was a German journalist, editor, publicist, and politician. He was one of the most influential German journalists, founder and part-owner of '' Der Spiegel'' magazine. As a politician, h ...

, journalist, publisher and publicist *2002:

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 ...

, poet, author and editor *2003:

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the ...

, author, philosopher and cultural critic *2004:

Daniela Dahn Daniela Dahn (born 9 October 1949, in Berlin) is a German writer, journalist and essayist. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, Dahn has been an outspoken critic of the reunification process.Rado PribićThe trouble with German unificatio ...

, journalist and author *2005: , editorPersonenbeschreibung
on perlentaucher.de *2006: , journalist and author *2007:

Henryk M. Broder Henryk Marcin Broder (born 20 August 1946, self-designation Henryk Modest Broder) is a Polish-born German journalist, author, and TV personality. Broder is known for polemics, columns, and comments in written and audiovisual media. Starting as ...

, journalist and author *2008:

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 ...

, women’s rights’ activist and publisher *2009:

Frank Schirrmacher Frank Schirrmacher (5 September 1959 – 12 June 2014) was a German journalist, literature expert and essayist, writer, and from 1994 co-publisher of the national German newspaper ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung''. Education After studying G ...

, journalist, publisher and author *2010: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (medal for his life work) *2011:

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...

, President of Germany, civil rights activist and publicist *2012:

Götz Aly Götz Haydar Aly (; born 3 May 1947) is a German journalist, historian and political scientist. Life and career Aly was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg. He is a patrilineal descendant of a Mixed Turkish-Kurdish convert to Christianity name ...

, historian and journalist *2013:

Peter Sloterdijk Peter Sloterdijk (; ; born 26 June 1947) is a German philosopher and cultural theorist. He is a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe. He co-hosted the German television show ''Im Glashaus: Das P ...

, philosopher and essayist *2014: Florian Illies, journalist and author *2015: Jürgen Kaube, journalist and publisher *2016: , journalist *2017:

Rüdiger Safranski Rüdiger Safranski (born 1 January 1945) is a German philosopher and author. Life From 1965 to 1972, Safranski studied philosophy (among others with Theodor W. Adorno), German literature, history and history of art at Goethe University in ...

, philosopher *2018:

Souad Mekhennet Souad Mekhennet (born 1978 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German journalist and author who has written or worked for ''The New York Times'', ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', ''The Washington Post'', The Daily Beast and German television channel ZD ...

, journalist *2019:

Eva Menasse Eva Menasse (born 11 May 1970 in Vienna) is an Austrian author and journalist. She has studied history and German literature. Menasse had a successful career as a journalist, writing for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Frankfurt and as a ...

, writer *2020:

Christoph Ransmayr Christoph Ransmayr (born 20 March 1954) is an Austrian writer. Life Born in Wels, Upper Austria, Ransmayr grew up in Roitham near Gmunden and the Traunsee. From 1972 to 1978 he studied philosophy and ethnology in Vienna. He worked there as c ...

, writer *2022: , journalist *2023

Robert Habeck Robert Habeck (; born 2 September 1969) is a German politician and writer who has been serving as Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in ...

, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action

References

Literature

* : Essay – BRD. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2011, , pp. 120–122.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ludwig Borne Prize German literary awards 1992 establishments in Germany Awards established in 1992 Culture in Frankfurt Literary awards of Hesse