Candide price

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The Candide Prize is a German literature prize that was awarded in 2004 by the Minden Literary Association. V. was founded and awarded in the East Westphalian city ​​of Minden . The last award ceremony took place in 2011.

Surname

The award is named after Voltaire's novel Candide . In the prelude to the second edition of this novel, Voltaire mentions that the fictional author died in Minden in 1759 at the battle of Minden . It was the first decisive defeat of the French kingdom against Great Britain. In this dispute, France lost its supremacy in the world to England. Voltaire attributed the shameful defeat of France at the Battle of Minden to the depraved morale of the French. It corresponded to the real risk of bankruptcy of the once so glamorous kingdom. Obviously, Voltaire recognized its importance in world politics two years after the battle. The novel Candide dramatically depicts the sunken French culture.

This "adventure novel full of humor against the background of a world full of injustice and horror (is) at the same time a philosophical discussion", is how the Minden Literary Association explains the connection with the name of the award. Gilles Deleuze saw in this work, which was put on the index in 1762, the replacement of the theological with the humane understanding of the world.

History of the price

The town clerk grant from Minden

The forerunner of the Candide Prize was the Stadtschreiber grant awarded by the Minden Literary Association. V. and the city of Minden in 1995.

Mindener Stadtschreiber scholarship holders were:

The Candide Price

In 2004, the city of Minden withdrew from financing the city clerk's apartment and the annual city clerk days. The 2004 Candide Prize was then awarded by the Literarisches Verein e. V. Minden as the sole sponsor. The prize money of 7,500 euros was provided by sponsors until 2006. Since it was awarded in 2007, the prize money has doubled to 15,000 euros. This was made possible by funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media .

In 2007, Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann and the French Minister of Culture Christine Albanel decided to award the Candide Prize from 2008 as a joint Franco-German literature prize. The German partners were the Minden Literary Association and the Genshagen Foundation , supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The French partner was the Villa Gillet in Lyon; the award was also financed by the French Ministry of Culture (Ministère de la culture et de la communication) . One German and one French author were honored. The endowment was divided among the winners. In 2008 Martin Kluger and Mathias Énard were honored. In 2009 Volker Braun and Olivia Rosenthal were the winners.

From 2010 the Candide Prize was again awarded as a purely German literary prize - as an award for a German-speaking author - and only awarded by the Minden Literary Association. In 2010 Jan Faktor received an award for his complete work.

In the same year, the Franz Hessel Prize was set up as the new Franco-German literature prize .

Last award 2011

In 2011 the prize money was to be donated by the bookbinding machine manufacturer Kolbus from Rahden . After Peter Handke was selected as the award winner, the Kolbus company withdrew the award money due to Handke's attitude towards Serbia , as it feared an impact on internal business relationships. Critics accuse Handke of playing down Serbian war crimes. Handke was therefore given the prize as an ideal award. The award ceremony did not take place because Handke refused to come to Minden under these circumstances.

The jury of the Minden Literary Society in 2011 included:

The jury chairman Gerd Voswinkel resigned from the Minden literary association after the award sponsor Kolbus withdrew.

Award winners

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Candide-Preis on Kulturpreise.de accessed on May 13, 2018.
  2. ^ France today on the re-foundation of the 2007 prize on frankreich-heute.de
  3. ^ "Candide" literary prize awarded bundesregierung.de, November 14, 2009
  4. ↑ Genshagen Foundation: Awarding of the Candide Prize - A Franco-German Literature Prize ( Memento from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b Karsten Schulz, Carmen gatekeeper: Always trouble with Handke. Neue Westfälische, September 22, 2011, accessed December 25, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Carolin Emcke: Handke Debate: An attempt on the successful war crime Spiegel Online , June 4, 2006.
  7. ↑ a b Candide Literature Prize: Sponsor withdraws prize money for Handke. zeit.de, September 21, 2011, accessed December 25, 2016 .
  8. ↑ New dispute over Candide price ( Memento from December 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )