Awards and Funds

Every year the Goethe-Institut honours foreign figures who have performed outstanding service for the German language and international cultural dialogue. 

The Henrike Grohs Art Award is presented every two years to an African artist. The award was founded by the Goethe-Institut and the Grohs family in memory of Henrike Grohs, the former director of the Goethe-Institut in Abidjan.

Since 2003, the Goethe-Institut has awarded the Documentary Film Prize to an outstanding film work. The award ceremony takes place on a rotating basis at the German documentary film festivals DOK.fest Munich, DOK Leipzig Festival, Duisburg Film Week and Kassel Dokfest.

The Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is awarded every year in June for an outstanding literary translation from German into English that was published in the USA the previous year. Financed by the German government, the prize has been awarded by the Goethe-Institut New York since 2015.

The Goethe-Institut Paris, the DGLFLF, the DLF and the Sorbonne are jointly awarding a prize for literary translations from German into French. [DE/FR]

The science and technology company Merck and the Goethe-Institut have been awarding the renowned Kakehashi Literature Prize every two years since 2013. The prize honors Japanese translators for their translation of a German work into Japanese. [DE/JA]

The  Goethe-Institut Award for New Translation is presented by the Society of Authors and the Goethe-Institut London every two years. This translation prize is aimed at new and emerging translators, including those whose work has not yet been published.

In 2010, the Goethe-Institut New York received a generous donation in memory of Frederick and Grace Gutekunst. A prize was created to identify outstanding young translators of German literature into English and assist them in establishing contact with the translation and publishing communities.

With the support of the German Embassy in Moscow, the Goethe-Institut and Merck LLC are announcing the Merck Translator Prize 2020 and the Goethe Prize for Poetry. The Merck Translation Prize will be awarded for translations of German texts published by a Russian publisher between 2017 and 2019. [DE/RU]