Focus on Literature in Germany

Every day an average of three literary prizes are awarded in Germany. Does this help literature?

They are internationally respected prizes and those that are rather regionally significant, fairly highly endowed and completely unendowed prizes, prizes with odd names and prizes bearing the names of venerable patrons such as Grimmelshausen, Goethe, Kleist, Chamisso, Raabe and Brecht. There are also grants, work years and the like. Does this make literature better? Do all authors need financial help? Or do such prizes primarily serve the fame of their donors?

Who makes awards? And why?

It is businesses and banks, associations and foundations, clubs and private persons, but also many German towns and cities that award literary prizes – and often at great pains to themselves. Where the money comes from and how high the sum should be is usually quickly resolved. But how should the prize be named? And how to find worthy recipients? Does one allow oneself to an independent jury, and if so who should make it up? Or is it better to have a sole judge? How to avoid embarrassments? All these and many other questions need to be carefully considered, and often the right answers will cost more than appears in the sum of the prize money. No matter: in Germany there are about 1,200 literary prizes. On a generous estimate, there are far more. From Flensburg and Kappeln to Meersburg and Wangen, from Angermünde and Beeskow to Troisdorf and Schweich an der Mosel – everyone wants a literary prize to award. In Bad Gandersheim it is named after Roswitha, in Pirmasens after Hugo Ball, in Cuxhaven after Joachim Ringelnatz and in Aalen after the poor Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart. Most donors are looking for attention, perhaps even fame – which does not exclude the legal niceties of many a financial management and certain practices of the tax office from playing a role in donating a prize. What is clear is that whoever awards a literary prize does a good work in the social sense, obtains a cultural distinction that is otherwise difficult to come by, and gains public recognition that, in most cases, pays off in the medium or long run. So bring on the literary prizes!

Who gets the prizes? And who doesn’t?

Bring on the literary prizes! Many writers have taken up the same cry. Only a few stars can live from the sale of their books. Bestselling authors need no literary prizes. But far more than 95 per cent of German writers have bread-and-butter jobs or live from commissioned work, grants, readings and other sources. Usually this is just enough for a semi-secure existence. Literary prizes, however, are not about need, but rather about outstanding literature. We can quarrel splendidly about what that is supposed to be. Why him and not me? Why her again? There are always occasions for speculation and conspiracy theories, not only amongst literary colleagues. Naturally jury decisions about the winner of the Georg Büchner Prize, endowed with € 50,000, or the Joseph Breitbach Prize, endowed with the same sum, regularly draw criticism. For the donor, there is always a certain risk involved in honoring a hitherto relatively unknown author. It is not by chance that many literary prizes are bound up with modestly endowed promotion prizes, which are by no means to be despised and have paved the way for many a less known writer into literary life.

Literary prizes are necessary!

In international comparison, Germany allows itself a dense network of funding for literature. The strained finances of the federal, state and municipal governments will probably lead here to cuts. Private sponsors will have to step in, and they are doing so. Many are well aware that literature is a public good which needs to be cultivated. And the writers? Those who do not come to writing because of sheer money problems or certainly have no time to check their writing self-critically, to go over their texts “with a fine nail file” (as Lion Feuchtwanger put it), may reach the book market, but will hardly ever deliver really good literature. Good things take time, and only those who are more or less materially secure can afford that. Whether it is the German Book Prize or only the literary prize of the local savings bank – literary prizes help authors and therefore literature. Three every day? Why not?