• The jury honored the author's entire oeuvre with the 2025 award. Daniela Krien and Walter Hasenclever "meet in their struggle for the inner and outer balance of mankind."
• At the moving award ceremony in the Spiegelfoyer of Theater Aachen, the prizewinner warned against armament and war rhetoric in the current discourse.
• The prize is sponsored by the Walter Hasenclever Society, the Einhard-Gymnasium - Hasenclever's former school -, the Aachen book trade and the city of Aachen and is endowed with 20,000 euros.

The freelance author Daniela Krien was awarded the Walter Hasenclever Literature Prize last Sunday (September 21) at Theater Aachen. The prize was donated in memory of the Aachen-born writer Walter Hasenclever. It honors literary works that can be associated with Hasenclever's work in terms of their basic artistic approach, choice of subject or literary form. 

Adherence to the virtues of justice and bravery

The award honors the author's complete literary oeuvre. "Social moorings are visibly crumbling, and it is not only in times of corona that many people can no longer bear the increasing loss of security and are looking for new trust. Krien adheres to virtues such as justice and bravery, which Walter Hasenclever saw as the benchmark for personal action in times of political radicalization. The author and the award's namesake meet in their struggle for the inner and outer balance of mankind," said the jury.

At the award ceremony, held for the first time in the Spiegelfoyer of Theater Aachen and accompanied by pianist Younghee Hwang of the Aachen Symphony Orchestra, the numerous visitors were able to see that the jury's reasoning was very accurate. 

A work in the spirit of Walter Hasenclever

In her welcoming address, Mayor Sibylle Keupen made a direct link between Walter Hasenclever - an author "who not only touched people with his language, but whose entire life and work stood for attitude, humanity and resistance. A pacifist, a pioneering thinker who wrote early on against National Socialism and militarism" - and Daniela Krien, "one of those voices" who write in the spirit of Hasenclever with their work. "You continue Hasenclever's literary legacy in your very own way - as a precise observer, a poetic storyteller and a clever chronicler of our times," said the Lord Mayor, addressing the prizewinner.

The laudator, cultural critic and editor Anne-Dore Krohn, approached Daniela Krien's work and impact in a very personal speech that delved deep into the content of the novels. Krien's novels are "big and deep, sad and beautiful, and although they are fiction, they are truer than many things we take for reality. Her books are books about and for the real world." Krohn attests to the prizewinner's "Krien's impressive ethical mindset", in keeping with Hasenclever's legacy. It is often difficult to draw parallels between prizewinners and namesakes, but the jury hit the nail on the head with their comments on justice and bravery.

In her acceptance speech, Daniela Krien proved that the parallels drawn earlier were really apt. After the application for the prize and dealing with the namesake, the author asked herself how Walter Hasenclever would have reacted in the face of the current demands for "rearmament, conscription and war readiness". "Our attitude to life has changed in recent years. We feel that something fundamental has slipped," says Krien. "Has peace lasted too long for us to understand its value?" The prizewinner says she cannot simply go back to business as usual in view of the current war rhetoric. "Walter Hasenclever had seen what everyone sees sooner or later in war. Man in his lowest form."

As Hasenclever's spiritual successor, Krien proved to be a strong admonisher for a counterweight to the rhetoric of war that has become almost commonplace. A moving morning with important impulses and a worthy prizewinner.

Previous award winners

The Walter Hasenclever Prize has existed in its current form since 1996. Previous prizewinners include Peter Rühmkorf (1996), George Tabori (1998), Oskar Pastior (2000), Marlene Streeruwitz (2002), F. C. Delius (2004), Herta Müller (2006), Christoph Hein (2008), Ralf Rothmann (2010), Michael Lentz (2012), Michael Köhlmeier (2014), Jenny Erpenbeck (2016), Jenny Erpenbeck (2014) and Michael Köhlmeier (2014). Delius (2004), Herta Müller (2006), Christoph Hein (2008), Ralf Rothmann (2010), Michael Lentz (2012), Michael Köhlmeier (2014), Jenny Erpenbeck (2016), Robert Menasse (2018), Marica Bodrožić (2020) and Norbert Scheuer (2023).

This year's jury consisted of Bettina Baumann (Einhard-Gymnasium), Hilde Scheidt (Mayor of the City of Aachen), Dr. Jan Bürger (Marbach Literature Institute), Olaf Müller (Head of the Cultural Department of the City of Aachen), Martin Schwoll (Managing Director of the Backhaus bookshop), Thomas Thelen (Editor-in-Chief of the Aachener Zeitung) and Axel Schneider (Chairman of the Walter Hasenclever Society and the jury). Dr. Bürger, a representative of the German Literature Archive in Marbach, which looks after Hasenclever's estate and is the main sponsor of the prize, is also a member of the board of trustees. The prize is endowed with 20,000 euros.

Walter Hasenclever was born in Aachen on July 8, 1890. He died on June 21, 1940 in an internment camp in the south of France. His lyrical work and his drama "Der Sohn", which premiered in 1916, made him an exponent of literary expressionism. In 1917 he was awarded the Kleist Prize and from 1924 to 1930 he lived as a journalist in Paris. During this time, he wrote a series of plays. At times, he became the most frequently performed playwright in the German-speaking world. In 1930, Hasenclever worked as a screenwriter for Greta Garbos in Hollywood. His works were banned in Germany in 1933. As a critic of the regime, he was also physically endangered and fled into exile, where he chose suicide in the face of Germany's success in the war.

Daniela Krien, born in 1975 in Neu-Kaliß, studied cultural studies as well as communication and media studies in Leipzig. She has been a freelance author since 2010. Her novels "Die Liebe im Ernstfall" and "Der Brand" were on the bestseller list for months and have been translated into many languages. Daniela Krien has two daughters and lives in Leipzig.