German writer and poet Ursula Krechel has been awarded the Georg Büchner Prize 2025 at a ceremony in the State Theatre in the western city of Darmstadt.
Krechel, 77, is best known for her documentary novels including "Geisterbahn" (Ghost train) and "Das Landgericht" (The district court).
In her work, she opposes the devastations of German history and the hardening of the present with the power of her literature, the jury judged.
"History explodes, burying nameless people beneath it", she said at the beginning of her acceptance speech.
"Writing means thinking, observing, paying attention to tones and dissonances, drawing conclusions with far-reaching consequences", she said.
"Writing means reading and also picking up the inconspicuous".
"Writing means thinking about death, violent death, remembering living conditions that kill".
"With sanctimonious words, politics sprinkles sawdust over the bloodstains, new victims are to be lamented".
Prize endowed with ?50,000
Born in Trier in western Germany, the Berlin-based author has received one of the most important literary awards in the German-speaking world with the prize endowed with approximately €50,000 ($57,924).
Additionally, the Sigmund Freud Prize was awarded to the historian Dan Diner, and the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize was awarded to the writer Ilma Rakusa.
The award is named after the dramatist and revolutionary Georg Büchner, famous for the stage play "Woyzeck" and "Danton's Death". He was born in 1813 in what was then the Grand Duchy of Hesse and died in 1837 in Zurich. — dpa
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