Erik Reger Prize
The Erik Reger Prize was awarded since 1999 by the “Zukunftsinitiative Rheinland-Pfalz” (ZIRP). He paid tribute to outstanding representations of the modern world of life and work. The award has not been advertised since 2009.
The prize wanted to encourage more public debate about the role of business and trade in social life. This took place in the tradition of the namesake Erik Reger (1893–1954). The writer, journalist and publicist, who was born in Bendorf am Rhein, wrote the most important industrial novel of the 20th century in his novel Union of the Firm Hand, which was published in 1931 .
The jury of the award included the literary critic of Südwestrundfunk , Martin Lüdke, Sigfrid Gauch (literary advisor in the Ministry of Culture of Rhineland-Palatinate ), Klaus Arp for the board of the ZIRP as well as a representative of literary studies or the book trade and a representative of the state chancellery Rhineland-Palatinate. The award was endowed with 10,000 euros and could be divided into a main prize and a sponsorship prize.
Previous winners
Since 1999, the award has been given every two years to German-speaking writers and journalists to honor outstanding work on the subject of modern living and working environments. The Erik Reger Prize was awarded for the first time in 1999 to the writer Ernst-Wilhelm Händler, who "shows a sharply contoured picture of contemporary society based on the division of labor and its mental state in his novels and stories".
- 1999 Ernst-Wilhelm dealer
- 2001 Mark Siemons (main prize), for reports from the employees' lives; Nadja Kirsten (sponsorship award) for a report on the changed manners in German companies.
- 2003 Uwe Timm
- 2005 Peter Rühmkorf (main prize) and Sandra Hoffmann (sponsorship prize) for their first novel “Den Himmel zu Füssen”.
- 2007 Ralf Rothmann (main prize) and the weblog giant machine (sponsorship prize)