The Georg Büchner Prize (German: Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize for German language literature. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of Woyzeck and Leonce and Lena. The Georg Büchner Prize is awarded annually for authors "writing in the German language who have notably emerged through their oeuvre as essential contributors to the shaping of contemporary German cultural life".[1]

Georg Büchner Prize
Portrait of Georg Büchner, pencil drawing by the Darmstadt theater painter Philipp August Joseph Hoffmann
Awarded forauthors writing in the German language whose work is considered especially meritorious and who have made a significant contribution to contemporary German culture
LocationDarmstadt
CountryGermany
Presented byDeutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Reward(s)€50,000
First awarded1923
Websitewww.deutscheakademie.de/en/awards/georg-buechner-preis

History

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The Georg Büchner Prize was created in 1923 in memory of Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse.[2] It was first awarded in 1923. Among the early recipients were mostly visual artists, poets, actors, and singers.[3]

In 1951, the prize changed to a general literary prize, awarded annually by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. It goes to German language authors, and the annual speech by the recipient takes place in Darmstadt. Since 2002, the prize has been endowed with €50,000.

The Georg Büchner Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature

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Five winners of the Georg Büchner Prize, Günter Grass (1965), Heinrich Böll (1967), Elias Canetti (1972), Peter Handke (1973) and Elfriede Jelinek (1998) have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in subsequent years. The Georg Büchner Prize is frequently seen as an indicator for potential future Nobel Prize winners writing in the German language. Most recently, however, the Swedish Academy in Stockholm preceded the German Academy for Language and Literature in awarding a prolific writer from the German sprachraum. Herta Müller received the Nobel Prize in Literature but has not yet been awarded the Georg Büchner Prize.[4]

The 2024 Büchner Prize recipient is the South Tyrolean lyricist and poet Oswald Egger.[5]

Recipients of the literary prize, since 1951

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Laureate of the year 1989: Botho Strauß
 
Laureate of the year 2020: Elke Erb
Year Name Nationality Notes Ref(s)
1951 Gottfried Benn   West Germany
1952 not given
1953 Ernst Kreuder   West Germany
1954 Martin Kessel   West Germany
1955 Marie Luise Kaschnitz   West Germany
1956 Karl Krolow   West Germany
1957 Erich Kästner   West Germany
1958 Max Frisch   Switzerland
1959 Günter Eich   West Germany
1960 Paul Celan   France /   Romania
1961 Hans Erich Nossack   West Germany
1962 Wolfgang Koeppen   West Germany
1963 Hans Magnus Enzensberger   West Germany
1964 Ingeborg Bachmann   Austria
1965 Günter Grass   West Germany
1966 Wolfgang Hildesheimer   West Germany
1967 Heinrich Böll   West Germany
1968 Golo Mann   West Germany
1969 Helmut Heißenbüttel   West Germany
1970 Thomas Bernhard   Austria
1971 Uwe Johnson   West Germany
1972 Elias Canetti   Bulgaria
1973 Peter Handke   Austria refunded the prize money in 1999 as a sign of
protest against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
1974 Hermann Kesten   West Germany
1975 Manès Sperber   Austria /   France
1976 Heinz Piontek   West Germany
1977 Reiner Kunze   West Germany
1978 Hermann Lenz   West Germany
1979 Ernst Meister   West Germany posthumous
1980 Christa Wolf   East Germany
1981 Martin Walser   West Germany
1982 Peter Weiss   Sweden posthumous
1983 Wolfdietrich Schnurre   West Germany
1984 Ernst Jandl   Austria
1985 Heiner Müller   East Germany
1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt   Switzerland
1987 Erich Fried   Austria
1988 Albert Drach   Austria
1989 Botho Strauß   West Germany
1990 Tankred Dorst   Germany
1991 Wolf Biermann   Germany
1992 George Tabori   Hungary
1993 Peter Rühmkorf   Germany
1994 Adolf Muschg   Switzerland
1995 Durs Grünbein   Germany
1996 Sarah Kirsch   Germany
1997 Hans Carl Artmann   Austria
1998 Elfriede Jelinek   Austria
1999 Arnold Stadler   Germany
2000 Volker Braun   Germany
2001 Friederike Mayröcker   Austria
2002 Wolfgang Hilbig   Germany
2003 Alexander Kluge   Germany
2004 Wilhelm Genazino   Germany
2005 Brigitte Kronauer   Germany
2006 Oskar Pastior   Germany /   Romania posthumous
2007 Martin Mosebach   Germany
2008 Josef Winkler   Austria
2009 Walter Kappacher   Austria
2010 Reinhard Jirgl   Germany
2011 Friedrich Christian Delius   Germany
2012 Felicitas Hoppe   Germany
2013 Sibylle Lewitscharoff   Germany [6]
2014 Jürgen Becker   Germany
2015 Rainald Goetz   Germany [7]
2016 Marcel Beyer   Germany [8]
2017 Jan Wagner   Germany [9]
2018 Terézia Mora   Hungary [10]
2019 Lukas Bärfuss   Switzerland [11]
2020 Elke Erb   Germany [12]
2021 Clemens J. Setz   Austria [13]
2022 Emine Sevgi Özdamar   Germany /   Turkey [14]
2023 Lutz Seiler   Germany [15]
2024 Oswald Egger   Italy [16]

Recipients 1923–50

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Georg-Büchner-Preis". Translated from Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
  2. ^ "Georg-Büchner-Preis". www.darmstadt-stadtlexikon.de. Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Georg-Büchner-Preis". Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
  4. ^ Leinen, Angela (29 October 2011). "Wie man den Büchnerpreis gewinnt". taz (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  5. ^ https://www.suhrkamp.de/rights/nachricht/oswald-egger-receives-the-georg-buechner-prize-for-2024-b-4492
  6. ^ "Sibylle Lewitscharoff wins 2013 Georg Büchner prize". Deutsche Welle. 4 June 2013. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Rainald Goetz: Top German literature prize goes to edgy ex-doctor". Deutsche Welle. 8 July 2015. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Top German literature prize goes to Marcel Beyer". Deutsche Welle. 28 June 2016. Archived from the original on 27 July 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  9. ^ "Lyriker Jan Wagner erhält Georg-Büchner-Preis". Spiegel Online. 20 June 2017. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  10. ^ "Terézia Mora bekommt Georg-Büchner-Preis". Spiegel Online. 3 July 2018. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  11. ^ Radisch, Iris (10 July 2019). "Traurig über seine eigenen Einsichten". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Elke Erb erhält Georg-Büchner-Preis". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Munich. 7 July 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  13. ^ "Georg-Büchner-Preis 2021 geht an Clemens J. Setz". Die Zeit (in German). 20 July 2021. Archived from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  14. ^ "Georg-Büchner-Preis 2022: Emine Sevgi Özdamar erhält renommierte Literaturauszeichnung". Der Spiegel (in German). 9 August 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  15. ^ "Georg-Büchner-Preis geht an Lutz Seiler". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Archived from the original on 18 July 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  16. ^ Pohl, Ronald. ""Holder-die-Polder": Oswald Egger erhält den Georg-Büchner-Preis 2024". Der Standard (in Austrian German). Archived from the original on 21 July 2024. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
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