German Non-Fiction Prize 2022: eight non-fiction books have been nominated

The jury for the German Non-Fiction Prize 2022 has selected eight non-fiction books for the longlist. Since the call for submissions began, the seven members of the jury have reviewed 244 titles from 130 publishers published since May 2021.

Jury spokesperson Tania Martini, taz, released the following statement:
“Doubt is essential for understanding the present, which is inhabited by ghosts of the past. The upheavals and conflicts of our present attest to this. The nominated books offer clever expositions of problems and sharp analyses of some of the fundamental configurations of our time. Some are impressive in their precision and intellectual candour, others in their unorthodox approaches and surprising associations. With an elegant and light touch, they help us to understand major themes while bearing witness to freedom and courage, happiness and repression, and challenging world views and rationales we take for granted. They open up spaces that are worth entering, revealing not prefabricated truths, but suggestions for deepening our thinking and tolerating contradictions – suggestions that allow us to look at the world a little differently.”

The nominated titles (in alphabetical order) are:

• Bettina Baltschev: Am Rande der Glückseligkeit. Über den Strand (Berenberg, May 2021)
• Alice Bota: Die Frauen von Belarus. Von Revolution, Mut und dem Drang nach Freiheit (Berlin Verlag, July 2021)
• Stefan Creuzberger: Das deutsch-russische Jahrhundert. Geschichte einer besonderen Beziehung (Rowohlt, March 2022)
• Samira El Ouassil & Friedemann Karig: Erzählende Affen. Mythen, Lügen, Utopien – Wie Geschichten unser Leben bestimmen (Ullstein, October 2021)
• Ludwig Huber: Das rationale Tier. Eine kognitionsbiologische Spurensuche (Suhrkamp, December 2021)
• Stephan Malinowski: Die Hohenzollern und die Nazis. Geschichte einer Kollaboration (Propyläen, September 2021)
• Steffen Mau: Sortiermaschinen. Die Neuerfindung der Grenze im 21. Jahrhundert (C.H.Beck, November 2021)
• Natan Sznaider: Fluchtpunkte der Erinnerung. Über die Gegenwart von Holocaust und Kolonialismus (Carl Hanser, January 2022)

In addition to Tania Martini, the members of the jury are: Stefan Koldehoff (Deutschlandfunk), Dr Klaus Kowalke (“Lessing & Kompanie” bookstore), Prof. Dr Meron Mendel (Bildungsstätte Anne Frank – Anne Frank Educational Centre), Dr Jeanne Rubner (Technical University of Munich), Denis Scheck (ARD) and Prof. Dr Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Berlin Institute for Advanced Study).

This year, for the second time, the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) will award this prize, worth a total of 42,500 euros, to an outstanding non-fiction book written in German that inspires social debate. 

From the eight nominated titles, the jury will select the best non-fiction book of the year, which will be announced in Berlin on 30 May 2022.
The winner will receive 25,000 euros, the seven nominees 2,500 euros each. The awards ceremony will be held at the Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss (Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace).

Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth is patron of the German Non-Fiction Prize. The Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation) is the main supporter of the prize, which is also supported by the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss (Foundation of the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace).

Get to know the nominees: conversations, films and blogger reviews

Together with its partners, the German Non-Fiction Prize offers its nominees a platform. Reading enthusiasts and book lovers can get to know the nominated titles and their authors through conversations, discussion panels, films, audio clips and in bookshops. More information about the events is available at: www.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de/veranstaltungen. 

With the hashtag #sachbuchpreisbloggen, eight book bloggers will present the nominated titles in the coming weeks. Their reviews will be shared on the social media pages of the German Non-Fiction Prize.

Service for booksellers: to help plan inventory, a separate preview of the nominated titles is available in the title information system VLB-TIX.

The hashtag for the German Non-Fiction Prize 2022 is #DSP22

Downloads

Press photos of the jury and information about the nominated titles 

More information about the German Non-Fiction Prize 2022 is available at: www.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de