The Georg Büchner Prize () is the most important literary prize for German language literature. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of Woyzeck and Leonce and Lena. The Georg Büchner Prize is awarded annually for authors "writing in the German language who have notably emerged through their oeuvre as essential contributors to the shaping of contemporary German cultural life".

History The Georg Büchner Prize was created in 1923 in memory of Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse. It was first awarded in 1923. Among the early recipients were mostly visual artists, poets, actors, and singers.

In 1951, the prize changed to a general literary prize, awarded annually by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. It goes to German language authors, and the annual speech by the recipient takes place in Darmstadt. Since 2002, the prize has been endowed with €50,000.

The Georg Büchner Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature Five winners of the Georg Büchner Prize, Günter Grass (1965), Heinrich Böll (1967), Elias Canetti (1972), Peter Handke (1973) and Elfriede Jelinek (1998) have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in subsequent years. The Georg Büchner Prize is frequently seen as an indicator for potential future Nobel Prize winners writing in the German language. Most recently, however, the Swedish Academy in Stockholm preceded the German Academy for Language and Literature in awarding a prolific writer from the German sprachraum. Herta Müller received the Nobel Prize in Literature but has not yet been awarded the Georg Büchner Prize.

Recipients of the literary prize, since 1951

Year Name Nationality Notes Ref(s) 1951 Gottfried Benn 1952 not given 1953 Ernst Kreuder 1954 Martin Kessel 1955 Marie Luise Kaschnitz 1956 Karl Krolow 1957 Erich Kästner 1958 Max Frisch 1959 Günter Eich 1960 Paul Celan / 1961 Hans Erich Nossack 1962 Wolfgang Koeppen 1963 Hans Magnus Enzensberger 1964 Ingeborg Bachmann 1965 Günter Grass 1966 Wolfgang Hildesheimer 1967 Heinrich Böll 1968 Golo Mann 1969 Helmut Heißenbüttel 1970 Thomas Bernhard 1971 Uwe Johnson 1972 Elias Canetti 1973 Peter Handke refunded the prize money in 1999 as a sign of protest against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia 1974 Hermann Kesten 1975 Manès Sperber / 1976 Heinz Piontek 1977 Reiner Kunze 1978 Hermann Lenz 1979 Ernst Meister posthumous 1980 Christa Wolf 1981 Martin Walser 1982 Peter Weiss posthumous 1983 Wolfdietrich Schnurre 1984 Ernst Jandl 1985 Heiner Müller 1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1987 Erich Fried 1988 Albert Drach 1989 Botho Strauß 1990 Tankred Dorst 1991 Wolf Biermann 1992 George Tabori 1993 Peter Rühmkorf 1994 Adolf Muschg 1995 Durs Grünbein 1996 Sarah Kirsch 1997 Hans Carl Artmann 1998 Elfriede Jelinek 1999 Arnold Stadler 2000 Volker Braun 2001 Friederike Mayröcker 2002 Wolfgang Hilbig 2003 Alexander Kluge 2004 Wilhelm Genazino 2005 Brigitte Kronauer 2006 Oskar Pastior / posthumous 2007 Martin Mosebach 2008 Josef Winkler 2009 Walter Kappacher 2010 Reinhard Jirgl 2011 Friedrich Christian Delius 2012 Felicitas Hoppe 2013 Sibylle Lewitscharoff 2014 Jürgen Becker 2015 Rainald Goetz 2016 Marcel Beyer 2017 Jan Wagner 2018 Terézia Mora 2019 Lukas Bärfuss 2020 Elke Erb 2021 Clemens J. Setz 2022 Emine Sevgi Özdamar / 2023 Lutz Seiler 2024 Oswald Egger 2025 Ursula Krechel 2026 Christine Wunnicke

Recipients 1923–50 1923 Adam Karrillon (1853–1938) and Arnold Mendelssohn (1855–1933) 1924 Alfred Bock (1859–1932) and (1882–1954) 1925 Wilhelm Michel (1877–1942) and Rudolf Koch (1876–1934) 1926 (1880–1954) and Wilhelm Petersen (1890–1957) 1927 Kasimir Edschmid (1890–1966) and (1890–1957) 1928 Richard Hoelscher (1867–1943) and (1884–1966) 1929 Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977) and Adam Antes (1891–1984) 1930 (1884–1962) and (1858–1935) 1931 Alexander Posch (1890–1950) and (1897–1982) 1932 (1882–1949) and (1904–1970) 1933–44 not given 1945 Hans Schiebelhuth (1895–1944) 1946 Fritz Usinger (1895–1982) 1947 Anna Seghers (1900–1983) 1948 Hermann Heiss (1897–1967) 1949 (1895–1984) 1950 Elisabeth Langgässer (1899–1950)

See also German literature List of literary awards Sigmund Freud Prize

Notes

External links

100 Jahre Georg-Büchner-Preis: Interview with Prof Dr. Christian Klein of the University of Wuppertal in 2023