Hermann Kesten Prize

The Hermann Kesten Prize ( Hermann Kesten Prize ), until 2007 the Hermann Kesten Medal , was donated by the PEN Center Germany in 1985 on the occasion of the 85th birthday of its Honorary President Hermann Kesten .

The award is given for special services to persecuted authors within the meaning of the International PEN Charter . It has been awarded annually since 1994. The prize money of 10,000 euros (as of 2019) has been provided by the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art since 2000 . In 2015, for the first time, a Hermann Kesten sponsorship award also endowed by the Hessian Ministry for Science and Art was awarded, which is endowed with 3000 euros.

Award winners

1985: Bishop Helmut Frentz
1987: Kathleen von Simson
1989: Angelika Mechtel
1991: Christa Bremer
1993: Johannes Mario Simmel
1994: Carola Stern
1995: Günter Grass
1996: Victor Pfaff
1997: Said , German-Iranian writer
1998: Hermann Schulz
1999: Alexander Tkachenko
2000: Nenad Popovic
2001: Harold Pinter
2002: Sumaya Farhat-Naser and Gila Svirsky
2003: Anna Politkovskaya
2004: Bunt instead of Braun Anklam e. V.
2005: Journaliste en danger (JED), African journalists' organization
2006: Leonie Ossowski
2007: The Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos in honor of its murdered former editor Hrant Dink
2008: Russian research and human rights organization Memorial
2009: Baltasar Garzón
2010: Liu Xiaobo
2011: Mohamed Hashem , Egyptian publisher (Merit Verlag)
2012: Iryna Chalip , Belarusian journalist
2013: Index on Censorship , organization for the defense of freedom of expression, based in London
2014: Wolfgang Kaleck
2015: Madjid Mohit ( Sujet Verlag ); Sponsorship award: Gefangenes Wort e. V. (Giessen)
2016: Can Dündar and Erdem Gül ; Sponsorship award: translator group Translate for Justice
2017: Thomas B. Schumann
2018: Gioconda Belli ; Sponsorship award: Direkt36 (Hungarian online magazine)
2019: Philippe Lançon
2020: Günter Wallraff

Web links

Kesten Prize on the website of the PEN Center Germany