The Governing Mayor of Berlin and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation, Kai Wegner, announces the winner of the 2026 Berlin Literature Prize: In recognition of his outstanding literary work, the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation is awarding the 2026 Berlin Literature Prize, worth a total of €30,000, to the writer Matthias Nawrat. The award ceremony, hosted by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, will take place on 25 February 2026 at 7 p.m. in the ballroom of the Rotes Rathaus. Juliane Liebert will deliver the laudatory speech for the award winner.
Image above: Foto: Matthias Nawrat © Alena Schmick.
The award to Matthias Nawrat comes with an offer of a visiting professorship in German-language poetry from the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation at the Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at Freie Universität Berlin in the summer semester of 2026.
Matthias Nawrat, born in Opole, Poland, in 1979, emigrated to Bamberg with his family at the age of ten and now lives in Berlin. He studied biology in Freiburg and Heidelberg, then creative writing at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel. His oeuvre, which now comprises six novels, essays and a volume of poetry, has received numerous awards and was nominated for the German Book Prize and the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, among others. His most recent publication is the essay collection Über allem ein weiter Himmel. Nachrichten aus Europa (Above All, a Wide Sky: News from Europe). A new novel, Das glückliche Schicksal (The Happy Fate), will follow in March 2026.
The jury’s statement reads: “Just as Matthias Nawrat constantly broadens a limited Western horizon and opens up perspectives in all directions, time for him always means simultaneity. It is the in-between, the subcutaneous connection between the present and the past and their hidden effects that he elaborates in his texts, the network of relationships behind the fragments of our reality, the invisible lines that lead from the past to the present. When Matthias Nawrat explores the European space in his texts, be they novels, essays or poems, he explores it like an archaeologist who carefully removes the historical layers of sediment. His language is equally careful, never boastful, yet at the same time extremely precise and poetically radiant.”
The award jury consists of: Maja Beckers, Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian von Herrmann, Dr. Sonja Longolius, Dr. Wiebke Porombka and Prof. Dr. Julia Weber.
Matthias Nawrat responded to the award with the following words: “The city of Berlin opens the doors to various microcosms of our globalised present. It is also a place where the present and history of Western and Eastern Europe meet on a daily basis. Berlin not only bears the traces of the violence of the 20th century, it also represents a space for a global memory of the arts and traditions of thought. It is a great honour for me to receive the literature prize of this city, which has been my home for fourteen years and has become a symbol of hope for a once divided world since the fall of the Wall, for my literary work.”
The Chairman of the Foundation Board and Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, congratulates the award winner: “Matthias Nawrat deals with the inhuman dictatorships of National Socialism and Communism. For many years, he has enriched the literary city of Berlin, which for many artists is the hub between East and West par excellence. But Nawrat also belongs in our city because he has a distinctly European perspective. He reminds us that the nations of Eastern Europe in particular are part of our continent. I would like to thank the jury for their decision and look forward to presenting Matthias Nawrat with the Berlin Literature Prize.”
The Berlin Literature Prize awarded by the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation is linked to an appointment as visiting professor of German-language poetry at the Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature at Freie Universität Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Günter M. Ziegler, President of Freie Universität, said of the appointment: “It is an honour and a pleasure to welcome Matthias Nawrat as visiting professor of German-language poetry at Freie Universität in the summer semester. Berlin is a hub between Eastern and Western Europe – here, too, these interfaces are studied and researched in various disciplines, formats and schools of thought. Matthias Nawrat will enrich this work in a special way. The author’s origins lie in Opole, Poland, and Bamberg, Bavaria, but Berlin has been his home for many years. His books take us to the East and West, from Krakow to Venice, Skopje and Minsk, the Black Forest and the USA. They trace the past in the present and reveal the abysses of recent history through the medium of poetic language. We are very much looking forward to Matthias Nawrat’s public inaugural lecture and his seminar at Freie Universität.”
Dr Hans Gerhard Hannesen, Chairman of the Board of the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation, on the jury’s choice: “At a time when the political order we have known since the end of the Second World War seems to be coming to an end, questions about historical contexts and personal origins are becoming increasingly relevant and are providing guidance in the present. With Matthias Nawrat, the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation honours an author who, against the backdrop of Europe’s cultural diversity, does not shy away from the abysses of its history and describes in his essays and novels the vulnerability of society and the threats it faces, including through linguistic indoctrination.”
The Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation has awarded the Berlin Literature Prize annually since 1989. The Berlin Literature Prize serves to promote contemporary German-language literature in the genres of narrative literature, dramatic literature and poetry. The prize is intended to honour authors whose literary work to date has made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary German-language literature.
WHEN?
Sunday, 25 February 2026, 7 p.m.
WHERE?
Ballroom of Roten Rathauses
Rathausstraße 15
10178 Berlin
