
Geman Non-Fiction Award 2025
The eight nominees for the German Non-Fiction Prize have been announced. The judges selected them from 234 titles from 133 publishers published since April 2024. At their best, non-fiction books allow us to look at the world from a certain distance and, paradoxically, with an immediacy that few other genres can offer. The criteria that can be applied are even more varied. In making their selection, the judges were looking for surprising approaches and a wide range of themes. The authors nominated meet these requirements with ease, even when it comes to the really big issues of our time: war, education, AI and digitalisation, gender equality, the climate crisis or the definition of historical events and figures. The eight books convey all these themes with an accessibility that makes it possible to present complex issues in an understandable and readable way, and to question familiar certainties through unusual perspectives'. Jury spokeswoman Patricia Rahemipour
Single title

After years of research, Ulli Lust returns with her non-fiction comic about the beginnings of art and the importance of...
After years of research, Ulli Lust returns with her non-fiction comic about the beginnings of art and the importance of empathy for the survival of our species: a forgotten world unfolds around the archaic female figures, in which the hero's journey was a group affair, with women, men, children and even non-binary people in sometimes richly adorned roles.
- Topic:
- Graphic novel
- ISBN:
- 978-3-95640-445-0
- Author:
- Ulli Lust
- Illustrator:
- Ulli Lust
- Pages:
- 256
- Format:
- 19,3 × 26 cm
- Price:
- € 29.00

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are symptoms of a turning point that has been decades in the...
The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are symptoms of a turning point that has been decades in the making: Military confrontation is once again increasingly seen as a legitimate means of pursuing policy. Starting from this moment, but also looking at earlier conflicts, Franz-Stefan Gady analyses the constant nature of war and the changing character of warfare.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-86995-142-3
- Author:
- Franz-Stefan Gady
- Pages:
- 368
- Price:
- € 24.00

Few stories are told as often as that of the inexorable rise of technology companies to the top of the...
Few stories are told as often as that of the inexorable rise of technology companies to the top of the globally connected world. Only one chapter remains untold: The price paid by the global South. Ingo Dachwitz and Sven Hilbig shed light on this blind spot, highlighting the global consequences of digital colonialism as well as existing approaches to a fairer digitalisation.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-406-82302-2
- Author:
- Ingo Dachwitz, Sven Hilbig
- Pages:
- 351
- Price:
- € 28.00

35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: What has become of the happiness of 1989? Where does all...
35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: What has become of the happiness of 1989? Where does all the anger come from? Where do the false images come from? Ines Geipel goes back to the crack in time and delves into the upheavals that followed the end of the division of Germany. She takes a hard look at the politically inflammatory stories being told in the country.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-10-397568-0
- Author:
- Ines Geipel
- Pages:
- 320
- Price:
- € 26.00

For children and young people, the state of crisis has become the norm. The young generation is politically overlooked and...
For children and young people, the state of crisis has become the norm. The young generation is politically overlooked and socially neglected. This book calls for a rethink: children must be placed at the centre of political and social thinking. With comprehensive analysis, it shows the enormous changes that are shaping childhood today and how we can do justice to the youngest.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-462-00752-7
- Author:
- Aladin El-Mafaalani, Sebastian Kurtenbach, Klaus Peter Strohmeier
- Pages:
- 288

The Earth is warming. And it is doing so at an unprecedented rate. Without glossing over the facts, Bernhard Kegel...
The Earth is warming. And it is doing so at an unprecedented rate. Without glossing over the facts, Bernhard Kegel assembles all the technical and biological possibilities to stop this catastrophic development. Light and photosynthesis have made higher life possible and shaped it; now they could help to save it from one of its most serious crises.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-8321-6850-6
- Author:
- Bernhard Kegel
- Pages:
- 288
- Format:
- 134 mm x 208 mm
- Price:
- € 25.00

Humans appear as flawed beings, while their machines are celebrated as conquerors of their weaknesses. Martina Hessler tells the story...
Humans appear as flawed beings, while their machines are celebrated as conquerors of their weaknesses. Martina Hessler tells the story of this powerful idea, in which human fallibility is stubbornly linked to technological perfection. It is time to say goodbye to this outdated illusion.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-406-82330-5
- Author:
- Martina Heßler
- Pages:
- 297
- Price:
- € 32.00

Walburga Hülk tells of the fate and the myth of the grand homme Victor Hugo as an intellectual, writer and...
Walburga Hülk tells of the fate and the myth of the grand homme Victor Hugo as an intellectual, writer and multi-talented artist - and of his visions and contradictions. She paints a picture of a man and writer caught between freedom and exile, a picture that also reflects the history of 19th-century France.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-7518-2033-2
- Author:
- Walburga Hülk
- Pages:
- 500
- Price:
- € 38.00
Contact
The Foundation for the Promotion of Book Culture and Reading of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association is awarding the German Non-Fiction Book Prize for the fifth time this year, with prize money totalling 42,500 euros. The prize is awarded for an outstanding German-language non-fiction book that stimulates social debate.
From the eight nominated titles, the judges will select the non-fiction book of the year, which will be awarded on 17 June 2025 in Hamburg. The winner will receive €25,000 and the other nominees will each receive €2,500. The award ceremony will take place in the Kleine Saal of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
The Deutsche Bank Foundation is the main sponsor of the prize. The City of Hamburg and the Frankfurt Book Fair also support the award.