Georg Büchner Prize
The Georg Büchner Prize 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".
History
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. It was first awarded in 1923. Among the early recipients were mostly visual artists, poets, actors, and singers.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
Five winners of the Georg Büchner Prize, Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Peter Handke and Elfriede Jelinek 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.Recipients of the literary prize, since 1951
Recipients 1923–50
- 1923: Adam Karrillon and Arnold Mendelssohn
- 1924: Alfred Bock and
- 1925: Wilhelm Michel and Rudolf Koch
- 1926: and Wilhelm Petersen
- 1927: Kasimir Edschmid and
- 1928: Richard Hoelscher and
- 1929: Carl Zuckmayer and Adam Antes
- 1930: and
- 1931: Alexander Posch and
- 1932: and
- 1933-1944: not given
- 1945: Hans Schiebelhuth
- 1946: Fritz Usinger
- 1947: Anna Seghers
- 1948: Hermann Heiss
- 1949:
- 1950: Elisabeth Langgässer