The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then 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 ...

. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March,

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...

's day of birth. The laureate is selected by an independent three-member jury which usually includes the previous year's laureate.

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. I ...

Wolfgang Harich Wolfgang Harich (3 December 1923 – 15 March 1995) was a philosopher and journalist in East Germany. A deserter from the German army in World War II and a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Harich became a professor of philosophy ...

, Max Zimmering *1954: Gotthold Gloger, Theo Harych *1955: – *1956:

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 ...

, Rudolf Fischer,

Wolfgang Schreyer Wolfgang Schreyer (20 November 1927 – 14 November 2017) was a German writer of fiction, historic adventures mixed with documentary, science fiction for TV shows and movies and is best known as the author of over 20 adventure stories. Life ...

*1957:

Hanns Maaßen Hanns Maaßen (born as Otto Johannes Maaßen; 26 December 1908, in Lübeck – 23 June 1983, in Mahlow) was a German journalist and writer. Life Hanns Maaßen came from a working-class family. He completed a lesson as a stonemason and worked sub ...

, Herbert Nachbar, Margarete Neumann *1958:

Hans Grundig Hans Grundig (February 19, 1901 – September 11, 1958) was a German painter and graphic artist associated with the New Objectivity movement. He was born in Dresden and, after an apprenticeship as an interior decorator, studied in 1920–1921 ...

Herbert Jobst Herbert Jobst (July 30, 1915 – June 28, 1990) was a German writer. Life Herbert Jobst was the son of a miner from Neu- Welzow, Lusatia who died in World War I. As a small child, he would be abandoned by his mother in Radeberg and spend his ...

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 ...

*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 ...

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 ...

, Inge Müller *1960:

Helmut Hauptmann Helmut Hauptmann (born 12 March 1928) is a German writer who was mainly active in the then East Germany. Life Helmut Hauptmann grew up in a working-class family in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Near the end of World War II, he served as a Luftwaffenhelfer ...

Annemarie Reinhard Annemarie Reinhard (official name after marriage Annemarie Gode) (29 November 1921 – 10 November 1976) was a German writer. Life Annemarie Reinhard was born in Dresden. After her finishing high school, she worked as a tailor. She joined the ...

*1961:

Dieter Noll Dieter Noll (31 December 1927 – 6 February 2008) was a German writer. His best known work is the two volume novel ''Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt'' from the early 1960s which had sold over two million copies by his death. The work was filmed i ...

*1962:

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 Bierman ...

Bernhard Seeger Bernhard Seeger (October 6, 1927 – March 14, 1999) was a German author. Life Bernhard Seeger was born to a locksmith in Roßlau. He attended the gymnasium and then a teaching education school in Köthen. In 1944, he joined the Nazi Party. ...

*1963:

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

*1964:

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 ...

*1965:

Johannes Bobrowski Johannes Bobrowski (originally ''Johannes Konrad Bernhard Bobrowski''; 9 April 1917 – 2 September 1965) was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist. Life Bobrowski was born on 9 April 1917Bobrowski, Johannes (1984). ''S ...

Brigitte Reimann Brigitte Reimann (born 21 July 1933, Burg bei Magdeburg, d. 22 February 1973, East Berlin) was a German writer who is best known for her posthumously published novel ''Franziska Linkerhand''. Life Brigitte Reimann was the daughter of Willi Rei ...

*1966:

Peter Weiss Peter Ulrich Weiss (8 November 1916 – 10 May 1982) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays ''Marat/Sade'' and ''The Investigation'' and hi ...

*1967:

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 ...

, Walter Kaufmann *1968:

Herbert Ihering Herbert Ihering (also sometimes Herbert Jhering: 29 February 1888 – 15 January 1977) was a German dramaturge, director and theatre critic. He was seen by many contemporaries as one of the leading theatre critics during and after the Weimar yea ...

*1969: Werner Heiduczek, Wolfgang Joho, Alfred Wellm *1970: Fritz Selbmann, Jeanne Stern, Kurt Stern, Martin Viertel *1971:

Jurek Becker Jurek Becker (, probably 30 September 1937 – 14 March 1997) was a Polish-born German writer, screenwriter and East German dissident. His most famous novel is ''Jacob the Liar'', which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during Wo ...

, Erik Neutsch, Herbert Otto *1972: Karl-Heinz Jakobs,

Fred Wander Fred Wander (5 January 1917 – 10 July 2006) was an Austrian writer and Holocaust survivor. Wander was born Fritz Rosenblatt in Vienna, he left school at 14 and worked as an apprentice in a textile mill, before travelling around Europe takin ...

*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 ...

, Helga Schütz *1974: Kurt Batt,

Gerhard Wolf Gerhard Wolf (12 August 1896 – 23 March 1971) was a German diplomat who served as consul in Florence during World War II. Wolf was born in Dresden, the seventh and youngest child of an attorney of family law. After serving in the military, he st ...

*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 ...

Eberhard Panitz Eberhard Panitz (16 April 1932 – 1 October 2021) was a German writer, screenwriter, literary editor and publicist. He wrote epic works, documentaries, audio plays and scripts for films and television. He was committed to socialist realism, and ...

*1976:

Annemarie Auer Annemarie Auer (10 June 1913 - 7 February 2002) was a German author and literary scholar. Life Annemarie Auer was born in Neumünster and grew up in nearby Kiel on Germany's north coast. After the war her father took part in the 1918 Kiel mut ...

, Siegfried Pitschmann *1977: Erich Köhler, Joachim Nowotny *1978:

Karl Mickel Karl Mickel (12 August 1935 – 20 June 2000) was a German writer. Life Mickel was born in Dresden into a working-class family. There, he attended primary school from 1941 to 1949 and experienced together with his mother the bombing of Dresde ...

*1979:

Fritz Rudolf Fries Fritz Rudolf Fries (19 May 1935 – 17 December 2014) was a German writer and translator. Life Fritz Rudolf Fries was born in Bilbao, Spain. His mother was a German of Spanish descent, and his father a German businessman who was shot during the Se ...

*1980:

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 ...

, Paul Gratzik *1981:

Peter Hacks Peter Hacks (21 March 1928 – 28 August 2003) was a German playwright, author, and essayist. Hacks was born in Breslau (Wrocław), Lower Silesia. Displaced by World War II, Hacks settled in Munich in 1947, where he made acquaintance with T ...

*1982:

Christoph Hein Christoph Hein (; born 8 April 1944) is a German author and translator. He grew up in the village Bad Düben near Leipzig. Being a clergyman's son and thus not allowed to attend the Erweiterte Oberschule in the GDR, he received secondary educat ...

, Werner Liersch *1983: Friedrich Dieckmann, Helmut H. Schulz *1984:

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 ...

*1985: Helga Königsdorf, Bernd Leistner *1986:

Helga Schubert Helga Schubert (pseudonym for Helga Helm, born 7 January 1940 in Berlin) is a German psychologist and author. Life Helga Schubert is a daughter of a librarian, who was also active in economics, and of a Gerichtsassessor who died as a soldier in ...

, Heidi Urban de Jauregui *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: Fritz Mierau *1989:

Wulf Kirsten Wulf Kirsten (21 June 1934 – 14 December 2022) was a German poet, novelist, and publisher. He is known for his nature poetry and his essays on the history and culture of Saxony. The son of a stonemason, Kirsten was born in Klipphausen, Meisse ...

*1990:

Adolf Endler Adolf Endler (20 September 1930 – 2 August 2009) was a lyric poet, essayist and prose author who played a central role in subcultural activities that attacked and challenged an outdated model of socialist realism in the German Democratic Repu ...

Elke Erb Elke Erb (born 18 February 1938) is a German author-poet based in Berlin. She has also worked as a literary editor and translator. Biography Family provenance and early years Elke Erb was born at Scherbach (today part of Rheinbach) in the hill ...

*1991:

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 ...

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 ...

*1992: – *1993/94 Lothar Baier *1995:

Hans Mayer Hans Mayer (19 March 1907 in Cologne – 19 May 2001 in Tübingen; pseudonym: ''Martin Seiler'') was a German literary scholar. Mayer was also a jurist and social researcher and was internationally recognized as a critic, author and musicologist ...

*1996:

Julius Posener Julius Posener (4 November 1904, Lichterfelde – 29 January 1996, Berlin) was a German architectural historian, author and higher education teacher. Coming from a bourgeois-Jewish background, son of the painter Moritz Posener and a daughter of t ...

*1997: Michael Rutschky *1998: Karl Markus Michel *1999: Katharina Rutschky *2000:

Dubravka Ugrešić Dubravka Ugrešić (; born 27 March 1949) is a Yugoslav and later Croatian writer. A graduate of University of Zagreb, she has been based in Amsterdam since 1996 and refuses to identify as a Croatian writer. Early life and education Ugrešić ...

*2001: Walter Boehlich *2002:

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 ...

*2003:

Wolfgang Schivelbusch Wolfgang Schivelbusch (born 26 November 1941) is a German scholar of cultural studies, historian, and author. Early life Wolfgang Schivelbusch was born on 26 November 1941 in Berlin. He studied literature, sociology, and philosophy. He has lived ...

*2004: Claudia Schmölders *2005:

Ivan Nagel Ivan Nagel (28 June 1931 – 9 April 2012) was a German theater scholar, critic and former theater director of Hungarian origin. Life Ivan Nagel was born in Budapest. He came from a Jewish family who fled their home because of the Second Worl ...

*2006: Peter von Matt *2007: Karl Heinz Bohrer *2008: Heinz Schlaffer *2009:

Hanns Zischler Hanns Zischler (born 18 June 1947) is a German actor known for his portrayal of Hans in Steven Spielberg's film ''Munich''. According to the Internet Movie Database, Zischler has appeared in 171 movies since 1968. He is known in Sweden for his r ...

*2010: Michael Maar *2011: Marie-Luise Scherer *2012: Uwe Kolbe *2013:

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 ...

*2014: Robert Schindel *2015:

Adam Zagajewski Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, the 2017 P ...

*2016: Gunnar Decker *2017:

Gisela von Wysocki Gisela is the name of: People Full name * Gisela, Abbess of Chelles (757–810), daughter of Pepin the Short, sister of Charlemagne ** Gisela, daughter of Charlemagne (781–808) * Gisela, daughter of Louis the Pious (born 821), consort of Eberhar ...

*2018: Christian Bommarius *2019: Danilo Scholz *2020: Eva Horn *2021:

Kathrin Passig Kathrin Passig (born 4 June 1970) is a German writer. Life and Works Passig was born in 1970 in Deggendorf, a small town in Lower Bavaria. She is editor and programmer of the blog "Riesenmaschine" which received the Grimme Online Award 2006, a ...

*2022: Lothar Müller

Recipients

References

External links

See also