Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize for books for children and young people
The Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize for books for children and young people was founded in order to honor the achievements of Federal President Gustav Heinemann as a supporter of peace research and education, and to honor books for children and young people that are particularly suitable for children and to convey to young people the idea of a peaceful coexistence characterized by tolerance and moral courage . On the occasion of his election in 1969, Gustav Heinemann took the initiative to found the German Society for Peace and Conflict Research, which awarded this prize until it was dissolved by the federal government in 1983. Since then, the award has been made by the North Rhine-Westphalian state government . The state center for political education in North Rhine-Westphalia supervises and organizes the competition and award ceremony.
The thematic and genre-specific spectrum of the books that have been awarded prizes since 1982, including the book recommendations, is considerable and makes it clear that the concept of peace was broadly defined by the independent jury from the beginning and that no genre (children's book, youth book, picture book, non-fiction book) was preferred. In Heinemann's view, peace is much more than the absence of war. A prerequisite for long-term preservation of internal and external peace is commitment to human rights and the fight against all forms of discrimination , as well as standing up for the preservation of creation. In addition to the peace education aspect, the form, aesthetics, style, literary quality and targeting of the title to be awarded are no less important for the jury.
The Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize is linked to a monetary bonus of 7,500 euros. The bonus can be shared.
Award winners
- 1982: Jörg Müller and Jörg Steiner for People in the Sea
- 1983: Rudolf Frank for The Boy Who Forgot His Birthday / Els Pelgrom for The Children of the Eighth Forest
- 1984: Gudrun Pausewang for The Last Children of Schewenborn
- 1985: Franz Nuscheler for Nowhere at Home / Nikolai Dementjew for Included. A day in a besieged city
- 1986: Anatol Feid for No Fear, Maria / Tilde Michels and Reinhard Michl for Es knockft bei Wanja in der Nacht
- 1987: Roberto Innocenti for Rosa Weiß
- 1988: Jan de Zanger for Then just with violence
- 1989: Inge Meyer-Dietrich for Plascha or: About little people and big dreams
- 1990: The girls and boys at the Tübingen Children's Hospital for tears in the rainbow
- 1991: Virginia Hamilton for MC Higgins, the Great
- 1992: Arnulf Zitelmann for Paule Pizolka
- 1993: No award winner
- 1994: SOS Racism Working Group for Project Manual: Violence and Racism
- 1995: Eric Silver for you were silent heroes - women and men who saved Jews from the Nazis
- 1996: Mecka Lind for Isabel - a street kid in Rio
- 1997: Elin Brodin for The Book of Slaves - Ten Texts about Animals
- 1998: Gregie de Maeyer and Koen Vanmechelen for Juul
- 1999: Dilek Zaptçıoğlu for The moon eats the stars
- 2000: Gerard Dhotel for asylum
- 2001: Lutz van Dijk for Township Blues
- 2002: Mat's election for The Invisible One
- 2003: No award of the award (“The jury justified its unanimous decision with the fact that, among the 80 titles submitted for the award, there were a number of factually and literarily convincing books, but none of them adequately met the criteria for peace-promoting literature for children and young people . ")
- 2004: Antonio Skármeta (text) and Jacky Gleich (illustration) for The Essay
- 2005: Elisabeth Zöller for Anton and the time of unworthy life
- 2006: Dolf Verroen and the translator Rolf Erdorf for How beautiful I am
- 2007: Guus Kuijer and the translator Sylke Hachmeister for The Book of All Things
- 2008: Digne Meller Marcovicz for Massel. Last witnesses
- 2009: Patricia McCormick and the translator Alexandra Ernst for Sold
- 2010: Grit Poppe for locked away
- 2011: Kirsten Boie for Ringel, Rangel, Rosen
- 2012: Anne-Laure Bondoux for her novel The Time of Miracles
- 2013: Anna Kuschnarowa for Kinshasa Dreams
- 2014: Adam Jaromir , Gabriela Cichowska and Dorota Nowacka for Fräulein Esther's last performance. A story from the Warsaw ghetto
- 2015: John Boyne for As Far As Close
- 2016: Reinhard Kleist for The Dream of Olympia - The Story of Samia Yusuf Omar
- 2017: Bernardo P. Carvalho (illustrator) and Isabel Minhós Martins (author) for the picture book Nobody gets through here!
- 2018: Rafik Schami , especially for Sami and the desire for freedom
- 2019: Judith Burger for Gertrude unlimited