The Theodor Wolff Prize is a German journalism prize. It has been awarded annually since 1962 in five categories, equal prizes of €6,000, by the . In addition, at irregular intervals, journalists are awarded the Theodor Wolff Prize for their life's work. The award is dedicated to the memory of

Theodor Wolff Theodor Wolff (2 August 1868 – 23 September 1943) was a German writer who was influential as a journalist, critic and newspaper editor. He was born and died in Berlin. Between 1906 and 1933 he was the chief editor of the politically liberal new ...

, who was forced into exile by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s from Germany in February 1933 because of his Jewish origin and on account of ferocious opposition to the Nazi Party seizure of power the previous month. Until 1933, he was the

liberal democratic Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...

chief editor of the

Berliner Tageblatt The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the '' Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time. History The ''Berlin ...

Jury

The jury in 2016 consisted of nine people:Mitglieder des Kuratoriums und der Jury
/ref> *

Nikolaus Blome Nikolaus Blome (born 16 September 1963) is a German journalist. Life Blome was born in Bonn. He studied at the Henri-Nannen-Schule in Hamburg. From 1991 to 1993, he worked for newspaper ''Der Tagesspiegel''. From 1993 to 2013, he worked for Ge ...

(

Bild ''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper ''Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...

) * (

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

) * (

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

) * (

Saarbrücker Zeitung The ' (''SZ'') is a daily (except Sundays) newspaper published in Saarland, Germany. History and profile It was first published as a weekly journal in 1761 under the title ' (''Nassau-Saarbrücken Weekly''). After several changes in name and freq ...

) *

Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Memb ...

(

Rhein-Zeitung The Rhein-Zeitung (''RZ'') is a regional German daily broadsheet newspaper published in Koblenz by Mittelrhein-Verlag GmbH and distributed across Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rhe ...

) * (

Der Tagesspiegel ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, s ...

) * (

Aachener Zeitung ''Aachener Zeitung'' ( Aachen Newspaper, AZ) is a daily newspaper published in Aachen, Germany. It is printed, alongside the daily ''Aachener Nachrichten'' (AN), by Mediahuis in the Rhenish (format), Rhenish format. History The AZ was founded ...

) * (

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

) * (

Kölnische Rundschau The ''Kölnische Rundschau'' is a regional, independent daily newspaper for the Cologne/Bonn area. It is edited by Cologne Heinen-Verlag, which has its own independent local editorial office. The production of the national section was taken over ...

)

Notable recipients

1962: *

Thaddäus Troll Hans Bayer, known by the pseudonym Thaddäus Troll, (18 March 1914 – 5 July 1980) was a German journalist and writer and one of the most prominent modern poets in the Swabian German dialect. In his later years, he was also an active campaigner ...

(

Bremer Nachrichten The Bremer Tageszeitung AG (BTAG) (Bremer newspaper AG) is a publishing house that publishes various regional newspapers in the city of Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (germa ...

) 1964: *

Klaus Bresser Klaus Bresser (born 22 July 1936) is a German journalist and television presenter. Life Bresser was born in Berlin and studied at the university of Cologne. He works as a journalist for German broadcasters (since 1965 for Westdeutscher Rundfun ...

(

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger The ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' (KStA) is a German daily newspaper published in Cologne, and has the largest circulation in the Cologne–Bonn Metropolitan Region. ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' has a base of over 100 contributing editors and a wide ...

) *

Karl-Hermann Flach Karl-Hermann Flach (October 17, 1929 – August 25, 1973) was a German journalist of the '' Frankfurter Rundschau'' and a politician of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). Flach was born in Königsberg. He became a member of the liberal LDP (in t ...

(

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

) *

Kai Hermann Kai Hermann (born 29 January 1938) is a German journalist,Literauratlas: Kai Her ...

(

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

) 1966: *

Thomas von Randow Thomas von Randow (26 December 1921 Breslau, Schlesien – 29 July 2009 Hamburg) was a German mathematician and journalist who published mathematical and logical puzzles under the pseudonym Zweistein in the "Logelei" column in Die Zeit. (After 2 ...

(

) *

Theo Sommer Theo Sommer (10 June 1930 – 22 August 2022) was a German newspaper editor and intellectual. He began working for ''Die Zeit'' in 1958, rising to an editor-in-chief and publisher. His editorials for ''Die Zeit'' shaped the paper's social-liber ...

(Die Zeit) 1969: *

Günther von Lojewski Günther von Lojewski (born 11 July 1935) is a German journalist, television presenter and author. Life Lojewski was born in Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million in ...

(

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

) 1970: *

Gitta Bauer Gitta Bauer (born 1919 in Berlin, died 1990) was a German journalist. Opposing Nazism She was born into a liberal family and raised a Catholic. She was a member of a Catholic movement, that was banned by the Nazis in 1935. Some years later, sh ...

(Springer Auslandsdienst) 1971/72: *

Reinhard Appel Reinhard Appel (February 21, 1927, in Königshütte – June 26, 2011, in Bonn) was a German journalist and television presenter. Life Appel worked as journalist for German broadcasters. He was married and had three children. Awards * 19 ...

(

) 1972/73: *

Joachim Fest Joachim Clemens Fest (8 December 1926 – 11 September 2006) was a German historian, journalist, critic and editor who was best known for his writings and public commentary on Nazi Germany, including a biography of Adolf Hitler and books about ...

(

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

) 1973/74: *

Raimund Hoghe Raimund Hoghe (12 May 1949 – 14 May 2021) was a German choreographer, dancer, film maker, journalist, and author. Because he was born with scoliosis, his early efforts were focused on journalism. His writings explored the human condition; a do ...

() *

Hellmuth Karasek Hellmuth Karasek (4 January 1934 – 29 September 2015) was a German journalist, literary critic, novelist, and the author of many books on literature and film. He was one of Germany's best-known feuilletonists. Biography Karasek was born in t ...

(Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger) 1983: *

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 ...

(Die Zeit) 1985: *

Thomas Kielinger Thomas Kielinger (born July 1940 in Danzig) is a German journalist, political commentator and author, who for a long time used to be London correspondent for ''Die Welt''. Biography Kielinger was born in 1940 in Danzig (modern day Gdańsk in ...

(

) 1986: * Rudolph Chimelli (Süddeutsche Zeitung) *

Cordt Schnibben Cordt Georg Wilhelm Schnibben (born 28 July 1952 in Bremen) is a German journalist. Life Both Schnibben's father Georg and his mother Elfriede Schnibben who died when he was twelve years old, were dedicated Nazis. Only after the death of his fa ...

(Die Zeit) 1994: *

Giovanni di Lorenzo Giovanni di Lorenzo (; born 9 March 1959) is an Italian-German journalist. Editor-in-chief (since 2004) of German nationwide weekly newspaper '' Die Zeit'' and former editor-in-chief of Berlin's liberal daily newspaper ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (19 ...

(Süddeutsche Zeitung) 1999: *

Maxim Biller Maxim Biller (born 25 August 1960 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a German writer and columnist. Born in Prague to Russian Jewish parents, he emigrated with his parents and sister to Germany in 1970, when he was ten years old. After living for a lo ...

(

) 2001: *

Heribert Prantl Heribert Prantl (born 30 July 1953 in Nittenau, Bavaria, Germany) is a German author, journalist and jurist (former judge, prosecutor and lawyer). At the ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' he was head of the department of domestic policy from 1995 to 2017, ...

(Süddeutsche Zeitung) 2002: * Irena Brežná 2007: *

(Die Welt) 2008: *

Carolin Emcke Carolin Emcke (born 18 August 1967) is a German author and journalist who worked for ''Der Spiegel'' from 1998 to 2006, often writing from areas of conflicts. From 2007 to 2014, she worked as an international reporter for ''Die Zeit''. Her book '' ...

( Zeitmagazin) 2009: *

Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...

(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) 2012: *

Harald Martenstein Harald Martenstein (born 9 September 1953, in Mainz) is a German journalist and author. Biography Martenstein studied History and Romance Studies in Freiburg. From 1981 to 1988, he was a journalist at the ''Stuttgarter Zeitung'' and from 1988 ...

(Die Zeit) 2013: *

Robin Alexander Robin Alexander is a British educationist and academic known particularly for championing the cause of primary education, for his leadership of the Cambridge Primary Review, and for his research and writing on education policy, culture, curricu ...

Alfred Grosser Alfred Grosser (born 1 February 1925 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German-French writer, sociologist, and political scientist. He is known for his contributions towards the Franco-German cooperation after World War II and for criticizing Israel. Ea ...

2014: * Rudolph Chimelli 2017: *

Deniz Yücel Deniz Yücel (; born 10 September 1973) is a German-Turkish journalist and publisher. He has been a contributor to several German publications, most notably ''Die Tageszeitung'' and ''Die Welt''. Espionage accusations and imprisonment The Tur ...

References

External links

* German journalism awards {{journalism-stub