Schiller Prize (Prussia)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Schiller Prize , also known as the “Prussian Schiller Prize”, the “Great Schiller Prize” or the “State Schiller Prize”, was founded in 1859 and would have been awarded for the last time in 1914 according to schedule. With the fall of the German Empire in November 1918, the price lost its foundation.

History of the price

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller on November 10, 1859, Prince Regent Wilhelm von Prussia (later Emperor Wilhelm I ) donated a “one for the best work of German (sic) dramatic poetry that has emerged in the period of three years Price of one thousand thalers of gold together with a gold medal worth one hundred thalers of gold ”. The funds came from the private treasury of the prince regent or later emperor.

A committee was convened to determine the winner (s), the decision of which was either approved or not by the founder - since 1888 this was Wilhelm II's successor in office - as was the case twice in the case of Gerhart Hauptmann (1896 for Hanneles Himmelfahrt and 1899 for Die versunkene Bell ); because, as the Kaiser said in a speech on December 18, 1901: “An art that defies the laws and barriers described by Mir (sic) is no longer art, it is factory work, is trade, and art is allowed to do that never will. With the much misused word 'freedom' and under its flag one often falls into boundlessness, limitlessness, self-arrogance. "

The award for Hermann Sudermann's much-noticed and discussed drama Die Ehre (1889), which Paul Heyse had proposed as a member of the award committee, failed because of the conservative attitude of most of the committee; After lengthy disputes and the recourse to an emergency paragraph, which may also include non-dramatic works for the award, Theodor Fontane and Klaus Groth received the prize in 1890 for their overall literary achievement.

By the patent of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Of November 10, 1901, the provisions were changed to the effect that from now on the prize would only be awarded every six years, but twice as much, and that the dramatic production of the last twelve years was to be taken into account. Although dramas of a serious character that approximate Schiller's classical style should primarily be considered, other poetic products of outstanding importance should also be appreciated.

“The full prize (including the medal) has only been awarded six times in the fifty-four year history of the prize; almost as often, namely five times, the commission, made up of university professors and court theater directors, came to the conclusion that there was no prize to be awarded. In other cases one was content with awarding the sum of money to one or - if the last round (s) was negative - two or three candidates. "

- Peter Sprengel

As a decided opposition to the imperial arbitrariness in the (non) awards of the Schiller Prize - eight regular awards were compared to nine non-awards, see list of winners - the Volks-Schiller Prize was founded in 1902 on the initiative of the Berlin Goethe Association, founded two years earlier .

Award winners

See also

Explanation of terms Schiller Prize

literature

  • Hanna Leitgeb : The Schiller Prize (section of the chapter “Literary Awards in Modern Times”). In: The excellent author. Municipal literary prizes and cultural policy in Germany 1926–1971. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. New York 1994, pp. 21-24 ( book preview on Google Books ).
  • Wolfgang Sowa : The state and the drama. The Prussian Schiller Prize 1859–1918. An investigation into literary life in the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-8204-8781-6 .
  • Peter Sprengel : Pen letter copies. Price intention. Quality (section of the chapter “The shame of this farmer field award-winning time”). In: Klaus Amann , Hubert Lengauer, Karl Wagner (eds.): Literary life in Austria 1848–1890. Böhlau, Wien 2000, pp. 265–268 ( book preview on Google Books).
  • Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg , Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg : The appeal 'To the cultural world!'. The Manifesto of 93 and the beginnings of war propaganda in the First World War. Franz Steiner Verlag , Stuttgart 1996, p. 32 f. ( Book preview on Google Books).
  • Ernst von Wildenbruch: The new regulation on the Schiller Prize. A factual and personal word (1901). In: Gesammelte Werke , Vol. 16, pp. 211–222 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).

Web links

Wikisource: Schiller Prize  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted from: What is art? In: The time № 25 of June 22, 1962.
  2. ↑ You, my demon, my snake ... Letters to Richard Huch 1887–1897. Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 1998, p. 677 (commentary on pages 129-131; preview of the book on Google Books).
  3. ↑ quoted from Peter Sprengel: History of German-language literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century. C. H. Beck, Munich 1998, p. 141 (section “Literature Awards ”; preview of the book on Google Books). The number of non-awarding of the prize (5) contradicts the list drawn up by Hanna Leitgeb or the list of winners (9).
  4. ↑ Hanna Leitgeb: The excellent author. Municipal literary prizes and cultural policy in Germany 1926–1971. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. New York 1994, p. 24.
  5. ^ Kurt Fiedler : The German Schiller Prize. In: Die Gartenlaube , Heft 45/1879, pp. 751–752 ( full text at Wikisource).
  6. ↑ 1881, 1887, 1899 and 1914 not awarded according to Robert Franz Arnold et. al. (Ed.): The German Drama. Beck, Munich 1925, Zeittafel pp. 839–841 ( book preview on Google Books).
  7. ↑ on the award ceremony in 1890 see Fritz Mauthner : Comments on the Schiller Prize. In: The magazine for literature № 18 of May 2, 1891, pp. 283–285 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  8. ↑ 1893 not awarded according to Wilhelm Dilthey : Correspondence. Volume II: 1882-1895. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2014, p. 448, note 1 ( book preview on Google Books).