International Stefan Heym Awards

The winners are:

Elisabeth Neuhaus - "Slam goes Heym"

With the poetry slam "Slam goes Heym", Elisabeth Neuhaus wants to familiarise a young audience with Stefan Heym. Heym's life, work and influence will form the thematic basis for pupils' own poetic texts, which will lead into the modern format of the poetry slam. The project combines creative writing, a public presentation and an examination of the poet of the century Stefan Heym and his life.

Katja Wenzel - Black perspectives in the context of the GDR, exemplified by Stefan Heym's exchange with the African-Americans Oliver Harrington and Aubrey Pankey

Katja Wenzel researches parallels, differences and interactions in Heym's relationships with the two African-American artists who decided to live in the GDR. Heym, Harrington and Pankey were united by the experience of arbitrary attributions of 'nation' and 'race'. How did they reflect on and artistically process the discrepancy between anti-racist symbolic politics and real experiences of discrimination? The project poses these and other questions and thus provides a differentiated view of the GDR. As part of her research, the freelance dramaturge and author is planning interviews with contemporary witnesses and visits to the "Stefan Heym archive" in Cambridge.

Gerald Richter and Marian Kretschmer - youth art project "Go your own way"

Gerald Richter and Marian Kretschmer receive the sponsorship awards for the second time for a multi-faceted project: their previously award-winning graphic novel on the life of Stefan Heym will now be presented to and discussed with pupils. A film project with short videos about Heym is also planned. There will also be an (art) workshop on Heym's works, in which illustrations and large-format banners will be created. The results of the project will be blogged on the Internet and publicised via social media.

Ingrid Schreyer - "Encounters with Stefan Heym from 1964 to 2001 in the Ahrenshooper Künstlerhaus Schreyer" - book project

In her project, Ingrid Schreyer describes her relationship with Stefan Heym. The experiences are to be published in book form. The result is a new literary work on the life of Stefan Heym and thus a new approach in the field of estate research.

Review 2020/2021

On 10 October 2021, the Stefan Heym Sponsorship Awards were also presented as part of the International Stefan Heym Award ceremony.

Lord Mayor Sven Schulze honoured five projects with the International Stefan Heym Sponsorship Awards that evening. Like the literature prize, the sponsorship awards also have a total value of 20,000 euros.

The winners are:

Material for school - "Go your own way" by Gerald Richter and Marian Kretschmer

Gerald Richter and Marian Kretschmer use various participatory formats to familiarise pupils at Chemnitz schools with the life and work of Stefan Heym.

In the spirit of Heym, they want to encourage young people to find their own way and get involved. Holiday workshops are planned to design banners, posters, flyers, bookmarks and short videos. The project will receive 7500 euros in prize money.

Index of persons for Stefan Heym's "Obituary" by Dr Jürgen Nitsche

Dr Jürgen Nitsche uses Heym's autobiography as a starting point to open up the writer's immediate social environment in Chemnitz to all interested readers. The project receives 2500 euros in prize money.

Compositions to Heym's poems by Ludwig Streng

Ludwig Streng uses music to create a new approach to Stefan Heym's lesser-known poetry and its genesis. The compositions will be played and recorded. The project will receive 2500 euros in prize money.

Concert readings of Stefan Heym's "Obituary" by Liv Heym

Liv Heym, granddaughter of Stefan Heym, provides a musical accompaniment to Heym's "Obituary" and places particular emphasis on the social component of the venues for her concert readings: In addition to public stages, voluntary performances are planned in schools, care homes, museums and prisons. The project will receive 4000 euros in prize money.

Interviews with contemporary witnesses by filmmaker Beate Kunath:

Seven companions of Stefan Heym recall personal encounters in interviews with Beate Kunath, opening up their very own perspective on Heym's work. The interviews will be filmed. The project will receive 3500 euros in prize money.

The Stefan Heym Prizes, awarded for the first time by the City of Chemnitz, were presented to the winners on 5 November 2017 during a ceremony at the Schauspielhaus by Mayor Barbara Ludwig.

The decision to award the sponsorship prizes was made by the Board of Trustees of the International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz. The sponsorship prizes are awarded in addition to the International Stefan Heym Prize, which is endowed with 20,000 euros.

The prize winners are:

• Stefan Heym Competition for Young Literature
  Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff-Gymnasium School Promotion Association, represented by headmaster Ronald Langhoff (4,000 euros)
  
  The competition encourages young adolescents to follow Stefan Heym's example - to write. The young people actively engage artistically with the reality around them. In view of the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff-Gymnasium in 2018, the Board of Trustees considers the compilation of the best entries from all the competitions in a volume of poetry to be a fitting tribute to the long-standing commitment of the pupils, but also to those responsible for the project at Stefan Heym's former school.
  
  
• Stefan Heym and the 800th anniversary celebrations in Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1965. A journey through time with the Stefan Heym Award
  Historian Dr Jürgen Nitsche (3,000 euros)
  
  In the opinion of the board of trustees, the project is a field of research that has not yet been explored. Not only is there a close connection to Stefan Heym's life and the history of the city of Chemnitz, but further links to Stefan Heym's life, such as his relationship with companions during this time, are to be expected.
  
  
• Archive trip to Cambridge
  International Stefan Heym Society e. V., represented by Prof Dr Bernadette Malinowski (2,600 euros)
  
  The Board of Trustees recognises the potential of an exploratory trip to the Stefan Heym Archive in Cambridge by the Chair of Modern German and Comparative Literature as a source of academic desiderata, but also as a prelude to the establishment of a focus on the academic study of Stefan Heym in a Stefan Heym Research Centre in the city of Chemnitz.
  
  
• "Heym-liche Welt" scientific propaedeutic seminar
  Theresia-Gerhardinger-Gymnasium Munich, represented by Elisabeth Neuhaus (2,500 euros)
  
  In the opinion of the Board of Trustees, the discussion of Stefan Heym by pupils from the girls' grammar school in Munich in the context of a science propaedeutic seminar and the working visit to Chemnitz are excellently suited to passing on the memory of Stefan Heym to the younger generation and an opportunity for the pupils to actively draw lessons from Stefan Heym's life.
  
  
• "HEYMAT - HOME, WHAT IS THAT?"
  Association Kunstzone Schwarzenberg-Aue e. V., represented by Jörg Beier (2,500 euros)
  
  The Board of Trustees recognises and finances the part of the project in which school pupils deal with the concept of home as part of an educationally supervised school project. The concept of home is explored in the context of Stefan Heym's life and at the same time allows the pupils to address current issues.