The Governing Mayor and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, Kai Wegner, has announced the winner of the Berlin Literature Prize 2025: The Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung will award the Berlin Literature Prize 2025, endowed with a total of 30,000 euros, to the writer Abbas Khider. The award ceremony by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, will take place on 19 March 2025 at 7 pm in the Rotes Rathaus. The laudatory speech will be held by Insa Wilke.
Image above: Foto: Abbas Khider (c) Peter-Andreas Hassiepen.
The jury statement reads: Abbas Khider shows us Germany from the perspective of an author who was forced to become cosmopolitan: Imprisonment, flight, asylum and the hardships of arriving in a new homeland have been among the main themes of his novels since his debut ‘Der falsche Inder’ (2008). As unsentimental as they are free of cynicism, these books also visualise growing up in undemocratic societies determined by state despotism. […] Khider exemplifies a paradigm shift in contemporary German-language literature. What was initially negotiated as ‘guest worker literature’, then as ‘migration literature’, is no longer a marginal zone, but a centre of the most innovative contemporary German-language literature. People from very different backgrounds suffer from the state of a turbulent society, feel alienated in it and are looking for a home. In his last major novel ‘Der Erinnerungsfälscher’ (2022; tr: The Memory Forger), Abbas Khider also sensitises us to the conditions of a world in which living as a ‘migrant’ is no exception.
The prize jury includes Maja Beckers, Janika Gelinek, Prof. Dr Steffen Martus, Dr Wiebke Porombka and Prof. Dr Julia Weber.
Abbas Khider reacts to the award with the following words: ‘In times of exhaustion and perceived futility, I have withdrawn more and more – not out of fear of fascists or disappointment with democrats, but to reflect and sort myself out. The Berlin Literature Prize is a source of support for me; it gives me confidence in a world full of extremes.
Kai Wegner, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Governing Mayor of Berlin, on the jury’s choice: ‘Imprisonment, torture and exile have shaped his life. Abbas Khider came to Germany in 2000 after fleeing Iraq and living in various countries. Just a few years later, he published his first, now award-winning works. By awarding the Berlin Literature Prize, we are honouring an author who now lives in Berlin and shows us Germany from the perspective of someone who was forced to flee and go into exile. Abbas Khider’s view of our lives enriches our society and our literature – and each and every one of us.
The Berlin Literature Prize of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung is associated with an appointment to the visiting professorship for German-language poetics at the Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature at the Free University of Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Günter M. Ziegler, President of Freie Universität, on the appointment: ‘It is a great honour for us to welcome Abbas Khider as a visiting professor at Freie Universität Berlin. His unique perspective on social and global contexts as well as his profound understanding of the complexity of our coexistence significantly enrich the German and international literary landscape. Khider’s extraordinary powers of observation and his literary talent lend his works a special radiance. We are confident that his work at our university and the exchange with our students will lead to a fruitful and inspiring collaboration.
Dr Hans Gerhard Hannesen, Chairman of the Board of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, congratulates the prizewinner: ‘Since the foundation of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, the promotion of outstanding literary talent has been at the centre of our commitment. Literature allows us to experience happiness and hope, but also the suffering and inner turmoil of human existence, and encourages us to engage with the inner and outer worlds of the authors. With Abbas Khider, we honour an author who portrays the experience of flight and asylum and the hardship of arriving in an unknown environment with empathy and humour and challenges us to see the world with different eyes.
WHEN?
Award ceremony: Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 7 pm
WHERE?
Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung
Spandauer Damm 19
14059 Berlin
