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Prizes for audio books are ten a penny. The jurors have to be particularly careful when making their selection, as the winning productions are guaranteed instant recognition. Here is a selection of the most renowned audio book prizes in Germany.

Seal of quality for audio books

What do the productions Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance) by Peter Weiss (Der Hörverlag), Andrea Maria Schenkel's Tannöd, read by Monica Bleibtreu (Hörbuch Hamburg), and Enigma Emmy Göring by Werner Fritsch have in common? They all fought off the competition to win one of the most sought-after audio book prizes. About 2,000 new publications appear every year in Germany and there are just under a dozen prizes for audio books. Thus, an audio book has to be an acoustic masterpiece to be among the winners. Separate the wheat from the chaff – that's what the prize committees have to do. Reward quality. Listen very carefully, have a good ear for nuances, the production strategy, how well the text and the narrator fit together – that is the task of the jurors.

Which audio books have that 'certain something' and thus merit the most highly esteemed award, the "Audio Book of the Year", is decided by a jury of 22 writers, critics and booksellers. It includes publisher and high-school teacher Hans Altenhein, publicist Helmut Böttiger and Felicitas von Lovenberg, editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's literary and cultural supplement. They have been selecting their personal favourites from the plethora of new audio book productions every month since 1997 and once a year they select the "Audio Book of the Year" and "Children's and Young People's Audio Book of the Year". The winners for 2007 have just been announced: Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance) by Peter Weiss (Der Hörverlag) and the audio production of the children's book Das Buch von allen Dingen by Guus Kuijer (The Book of All Things, Oetinger Verlag) managed to stave off the competition. The 30,000 Euro prize, which is awarded by hr 2, the Hesse Broadcasting Corporation's culture station, and BÖRSENBLATT, is presented every January at the hr2-Hörfest, a major 'festival of listening' in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse.

And the winner is…

The German Audio Book Prize also provides a major platform for audio books. The 23,000 Euro prize – initiated in 2003 by WDR – was awarded for the first time last year by the German Audio Book Prize Association, to which WDR, publishers Focus Verlag and the German Publishers and Booksellers Association belong. Eight winners are selected in the categories Best Information, Best Children's and Young People's Audio Book, Best Narrator (male and female), Best Fiction, Best Publishing Achievement and The Special Audio Book, where the focus is on the production. A nomination committee recommends three audio books in each category from the year's productions. The jury then selects the winners from this short-list. More than 300 productions were entered by audio book publishers this season. The nomination committee carefully scrutinised them, discussed them and then listened to them again… The nomination list for 2007 was announced in December. The prize will be awarded at a big gala at the Cologne literature festival "lit.Cologne" on 9th March. Incidentally, last year Andrea Schenkel's thriller Tannöd, read by Monica Bleibtreu (Hörbuch Hamburg), won in the category Best Narrator.

The winners of the HörKules Prize, which is awarded by the German bookselling industry, are voted for by the public. Audio book fans can vote for their favourites from a HörKulino shortlist – put together by a team of experts – on the prize website or in the "HörBuch-Magazin" until 31 December. The prize is presented together with the German Audio Book Prize at lit.Cologne.

Spotlight on radio dramas

While hr-Bestenliste (hr's 'Best Of'), the German Audio Book Prize and HörKules feel an obligation to the "new audio book" which enjoyed a sudden rise in popularity at the beginning of the 90's, other awards are dedicated to radio dramas, which are mostly made by radio stations. The oldest award for radio dramas is the Radio Drama Award of the War Blind which was started by the German Association of War Blind (BDK) 57 years ago. The Filmstiftung NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia Film Foundation) has organized the prize together with the Association of War Blind since 1994. The winners don't get cash prizes, but they can be certain of a trophy and, above all, widespread recognition. Last year's winner was WDR's production of Ein Menschenbild, das in seiner Summe null ergibt (A Zero-Sum Portrait of Life) by Schorsch Kamerun.

The prize for radio play of the month, awarded by the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste (German Academy of Performing Arts) since 1977, is limited to current radio play productions by ARD stations. It was joined ten years later by radio play of the year (selected from the monthly winners). Neither award carries prize money. The award ceremony for the winner – the SWR production Enigma Emmy Göring by Werner Fritsch – was held in March 2007 in Frankfurt. The ARD Radio Play Prize, which was set up last year for the ARD Radio Play Days, also focuses on ARD productions.