Stephan Malinowski Wins the €25,000 German Nonfiction Prize
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Loading... - Zander Lambros
- 29 Jun 2022
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In a ceremony at Berlin’s Humboldt Forum, author Stephan Malinowski has been named winner of the 2022 German Nonfiction Prize for his book Die Hohenzollern und die Nazis: Geschichte einer Kollaboration (The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis: History of a Collaboration). The prize is a program of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association.
The book was published in September 2021 by Propyläen, an imprint of Ullstein Buchverlage.
Chosen by the jury from its eight shortlisted titles (below), Malinowski receives €25,000 (US$26,857), and the seven nominees receive €2,500 each (US$2,685).
Not unlike the issue-driven Aspen Words Literary Prize, a criterion of this honor is that the winning title is not only to be a work of nonfiction written in German but also one that “inspires social debate.”
In its statement of rationale for its decision, the jury writes, “Who determines the reading of the past? Stephan Malinowski has written an excellently researched and brilliantly told book about the role of the [House of] Hohenzollern since 1918.
“When asked whether the ruling house encouraged national socialism, Malinowski’s answer is unequivocal: When the ‘Third Reich’ was being built, the family and the Nazi movement forged a symbolic political alliance.
“The book combines social and political contemporary history with a family portrait and is at the same time a brilliant milieu study of conservative and right-wing hostility to the republic.
“It is characterized by stringent argumentation and sovereign knowledge of the sources. Malinowski gives a convincing answer to the Hohenzollern restitution demands and at the same time defends academic freedom against resistance.”
As Publishing Perspectives readers will recall, the jury for the program was announced in early November by the Akademie Deutscher Sachbuchpreis (Academy of the German Nonfiction Prize):
- Klaus Kowalke (Lessing & Kompanie bookstore)
- Stefan Koldehoff (Deutschlandfunk)
- Tania Martini (die tageszeitung)
- Meron Mendel (Bildungsstätte Anne Frank – Anne Frank Educational Centre)
- Jeanne Rubner (Bayerischer Rundfunk)
- Denis Scheck (ARD)
- Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Berlin Institute for Advanced Study)
The jurors chose die tageszeitung (“Taz”) journalist Tania Martini to be their chairwoman.
Speaking for the Börsenverein at the award ceremony, Karin Schmidt-Friderichs said, “This year’s German Nonfiction Prize is like a mirror of our time. Read More...
