Weilheim Literature Prize
The Weilheim Literature Prize was initiated by Friedrich Denk , a German teacher at the Weilheim grammar school , and it was awarded every two years for the first time in 1988, then in 1991 and until 2003, when Friedrich Denk retired. Since then, the city of Weilheim in Upper Bavaria has awarded the literary prize "in cooperation with the Kester-Haeusler Foundation , other local sponsors and the Weilheim grammar school" every five years.
background
In order to receive a prize, the author in question must have already read at the Weilheim grammar school. Poetry readings have been taking place since 1980, when Friedrich Denk (quote) wanted to “bring Ilse Aichinger to Weilheim”. Since then, more than 50 poets have read from her works: including Hans Bender , Peter Bichsel , Michael Ende , Hans Magnus Enzensberger , Robert Gernhardt , Günter Grass , Thomas Hürlimann , Sarah Kirsch , Michael Krüger , Reiner Kunze , Siegfried Lenz , Loriot , Reinhold Messner , Sten Nadolny , Peter Ustinov , Uwe Timm , Guntram Vesper , Martin Walser . By 2019, around 55,000 listeners attended the 110 readings, around half of whom were young people. At the first reading of an author, a Weilheimer booklet , which is compiled by some German teachers at the grammar school with excerpts from the works of the respective writer, is distributed to all pupils of the grammar school for class reading . From all of these writers, the jury will select one whom they “recommend to their peers in a special way”. The jury of the prize, endowed with 7,500 euros (since 2010), consists exclusively of seven (1988 to 2010) or eleven (2015) students from the Weilheim high school. The acceptance speech as well as the laudation and a few other excerpts will be published in another Weilheim booklet ; the speech is traditionally called speech to the youth .
With the award of the Weilheim Literature Prize, the city of Weilheim wants (according to self-presentation):
- Support authors whose work particularly appeals to young people,
- In the age of the mass media, arouse and cultivate interest in literature and reading, especially among young people,
- challenge and promote young people's judgment,
- clarify the quality of high school education in Bavaria,
- strengthen the reputation of the city of Weilheim in the cultural field.
Award winners
- 2015 Nora Gomringer (laudation: Pia-Elisabeth Leuschner)
- 2010 Sten Nadolny (laudation: Volker Weidermann )
- 2006 Wole Soyinka (laudation in Berlin: Federal President Horst Köhler )
- 2003 Rafik Schami (laudation: Harald Weinrich )
- 2001 Siegfried Lenz (laudation in Hamburg: Helmut Schmidt )
- 1999 Vicco von Bülow (Loriot) (laudation: Joachim Kaiser )
- 1997 Reiner Kunze (laudation: Arnold Vaatz )
- 1995 Thomas Hürlimann (laudation: Martin Walser )
- 1993 Gertrud Fussenegger (laudation: Dieter Borchmeyer )
- 1991 Wolfgang Hildesheimer (laudation: Peter Horst Neumann )
- 1988 Ilse Aichinger (laudation: Joachim Kaiser )