Panorama

Among the numerous television prizes awarded in Germany, the Adolf Grimme Prize has occupied a special position since 1964. Whereas other awards are associated with glamour and money, this prize, conferred annually in the city of Marl, is concerned with quality TV in Germany.

At least twice a year, the TV industry looks eagerly and hopefully to the city of Marl on the northern periphery of the Ruhr area: initially, in early February, when the approximately 60 entries regarded as commendable are selected from just under 600 productions submitted for consideration, and then four weeks later, when the prize-winners in a total of three categories are announced and receive their awards at the Municipal Theatre of Marl in late March.

Not only in Germany is the Adolf Grimme Prize seen as a seal of approval for quality German television. After all, this award is not concerned with money or glamour, as are the “Bambi” and “Golden Camera” awards or the “German Television Award”, but is seen instead as a reliable barometer of television trends due to its transparent, multi-stage procedure and independent jurors.

The procedure

In stage 1, three nomination committees for the categories “Information & Culture”, “Fiction” and “Entertainment” screen the productions considered by TV stations, producers and viewers as outstanding productions of the past year. From the entries, the nominated are presented at the end of three weeks of meetings. Subsequently, three juries consider these nominations and may also add a maximum of three further productions, if necessary (and subject to the relevant majority in the jury).

The procedure ends with selection of the prize-winners; under the changes made in 2007 to the awarding practice, up to five prizes each are now conferred in the “Information & Culture” and “Fiction” categories and two prizes in the “Entertainment” category. By tradition, further prizes are also awarded within the context of the Adolf Grimme Prize. They include, for instance, the Audience Award of the “Marl Group”, the Award of the German Association of Adult Education Colleges (Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband e. V., DVV), the principal shareholder in the Adolf Grimme Institute, the Special Cultural Award of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia and a grant for the best young film-maker's entry.

History

The prize, originally launched by Bert Donnepp, co-founder and head of the Marl Adult Education College (The Island), was awarded for the first time in 1964. In 1973, with the establishment of the Adolf Grimme Institute by the German Association of Adult Education Colleges (DVV), a stepwise process of increased professionalism commenced, the goal being to allow the growing range of programmes offered by the ARD and ZDF (public broadcasting corporations) to be evaluated in an expert and competent manner and to cater to increasing demands that the prize should gain a more attractive image.

Since 1978, organisational responsibility for the prize has lain with the Adolf Grimme Institute, which takes its name, like the prize, from Social Democrat Alfred Grimme, the last Prussian Minister of Culture and Education in the Weimar Republic and later General Director of the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation. In the course of time, the manner of awarding the prize has been adjusted to developments in television. Since 2007, two prizes have been awarded in the “Fiction” category, previously included under “Entertainment”, but only one “Special Prize” (instead of three, as previously).

It goes without saying that the annual prize-giving ceremony receives critical comment. This concerns both what are seen as incorrect decisions and productions that fail to win a prize in the end. Recent examples included Mogadischu (Mogadishu, 2009) and Contergan (Thalidomide, 2008) in the TV-movie section, the ZDF political cabaret programme Neues aus der Anstalt (News From the Mental Home) in the “Entertainment” category or, in the documentary section, the excellent research done for the WDR production Milliarden-Monopoly (Billions-Monopoly) or Tod in Texas (Death in Texas, 2007).

Nevertheless, this should not hide the fact that, overall, the decisions of the Grimme juries continue to reflect trends and tendencies in German television more accurately than any other prize. Whereas the four sponsors of the “German Television Award” (ARD, ZDF, RTL, Sat.1) can count on sufficient recognition as a result of the wealth of awards and categories alone, the Adolf Grimme Prize sees itself rather as an independent trend barometer.

Trends

Against this background, it comes as no surprise that the public broadcasting corporations have recently succeeded in strengthening their position within the context of the Grimme Prize, too. Their traditional bastion was always the documentary segment, where competition from the commercial-TV stations RTL or the ProSiebenSat.1 Group has been notoriously limited. What is new, on the other hand, is the trend towards growing success in the TV-movie area and also in the “Entertainment” category.

This is due, in part, to the fact that stagnating or declining advertising revenues and rigorous cost management are forcing the commercial stations to bank on established products. Within the context of the recent change of ownership, Sat. 1, for instance, has almost completely retreated from the area of sophisticated, ambitious TV movies. This may be the reason why there has also been criticism recently of the public broadcasting corporations' dominance of the Grimme prize – but, after all, the jurors in Marl are principally concerned with what was actually produced in the relevant TV year and not what should have been produced.