International Stefan Heym Prize

The International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz

The International Stefan Heym Prize is awarded in honour of Stefan Heym, the son and honorary citizen of the city of Chemnitz. The honour is to be awarded every three years to outstanding authors and publicists who, like Stefan Heym, have proven themselves in their work as personalities who intervene in social and political debates in order to fight for moral values.

The City of Chemnitz first awarded the International Stefan Heym Prize to the Israeli writer and journalist Amos Oz on 14 April 2008. Bora Ćosić followed in 2011, Christoph Hein in 2013 and Joanna Bator in 2017. The Croatian writer and journalist Slavenka Drakulić and the Swedish author and journalist Richard Swartz are the winners of the International Stefan Heym Prize 2020.

The Board of Trustees, which decides on the awarding of the prize, includes the Lord Mayor of the City of Chemnitz, the President of the P.E.N. Centre Germany, the President of the Goethe-Institut, the Director of C. Bertelsmann Verlag, the Chairman of the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) - German Section and the Chairwoman of the International Stefan Heym Society, Prof Dr Bernadette Malinowski, holder of the Chair of Modern and Comparative Literature at Chemnitz University of Technology, and two councillors from the City of Chemnitz's Culture Committee.

International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz 2023 awarded to Jenny Erpenbeck

The International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz was awarded to the German writer Jenny Erpenbeck on Saturday, 1 April 2023. The prizewinner accepted the award in person from Lord Mayor Sven Schulze at Chemnitz Opera House in the presence of the Saxon State Minister for Social Affairs and Social Cohesion, Petra Köpping.

Lord Mayor Sven Schulze: "With this award, we are honouring people who, like Stefan Heym, take a critical look at their time, who contradict and open doors, who open up surprising perspectives and take a clear stance with courage. In doing so, we are honouring a great son of our city and today's prizewinner."

Minister of State Petra Köpping: "We need people who stand up for the values of our society with thought-provoking written and spoken words. Stefan Heym and now the winners of the International Stefan Heym Prize are such voices that shape and effectively advance these important debates."

Prize winner Jenny Erpenbeck: "It is a special pleasure and honour for me to receive the Stefan Heym Prize today - named after an author who not only continues to have an impact today through his works and his reflections on a fairer society, but whose life experience and ability to judge independently have always been something of a beacon for me in times of political storms."

The writer also signed the Golden Book of the City of Chemnitz during the award ceremony.

Supporting programme for the International Stefan Heym Prize

Around the award ceremony, which only takes place every three years, the International Stefan Heym Society, in cooperation with the city of Chemnitz, has put together a varied programme of readings, lectures and theatre performances as well as events in the Stefan Heym Forum throughout the year.

On the day after the award ceremony, Jenny Erpenbeck introduced herself to the Chemnitz audience during a literary matinee in the TIETZ event hall and read from her latest novel "Kairos".
In the novel, 19-year-old Katharina and Hans, a married man in his mid-fifties, meet by chance in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s and cannot get away from each other for the next few years. Against the backdrop of the declining GDR and the upheaval after 1989, Jenny Erpenbeck tells of the abysses of happiness - of the path of two lovers on the border between truth and lies, of obsession and violence, hatred and hope.

Further events can be found in the detailed programme.

Programme booklet