German Non-Fiction Prize 2023

The idea of universally applicable foundations for human coexistence seems to have deteriorated. Hostile discourse camps accuse each other of...

The idea of universally applicable foundations for human coexistence seems to have deteriorated. Hostile discourse camps accuse each other of exaggerating specific interests and their conceptions of identity. With his invitation to rethink basic universalist concepts, Omri Boehm disrupts these debates. His book makes demands; it does not cosy up. It takes us back to figures like Job, Kant and Martin Luther King, drawing connections between biblical stories and contemporary controversies. It invites us to distance ourselves from contemporary debates by questioning the differences between interests and feelings, means and ends, and even value and dignity. Here, political philosophy encounters the present – with the stimulating presumption that divisible basic principles can be understood as being more than just an expression of conformity and consensus.

The journalist Teresa Bücker is in search of a path to a fairer society for all. Devoting less time to...

The journalist Teresa Bücker is in search of a path to a fairer society for all. Devoting less time to gainful employment is one way this could be achieved: a maximum of 20 hours of work per week with full pay, fairer distribution of care work and more time for social relationships. And not as an aim for the individual but for society as a whole in a “caring democracy”, which would have to begin in the family, where the root of the problem still lies, due to the incompatibility of paid and domestic work. Bücker develops a comprehensible model for a new time culture and time policy. Consequently, her book is dedicated to a topic that does not concern a phenomenon of time but a fundamental sociological question – while also taking on many social, political and economic issues of our time

The peasant world of hard work in the fields, milking cows and castrating piglets, of religiosity and self-sufficiency – this...

The peasant world of hard work in the fields, milking cows and castrating piglets, of religiosity and self-sufficiency – this way of life has disappeared so quietly that one can only wonder in retrospect. Sixty-year-old history professor Ewald Frie himself comes from a farming family. In this book, he talks to his siblings about their common origins and home, lovingly and unpretentiously evoking a way of life that is no longer familiar to many. And he takes stock: What has been lost with urbanisation and the expansion of education? What have we gained with social change? The fact that Frie does not always have simple answers to simple questions is one of the strengths of this book, which is as entertaining as it is insightful.

European asylum and migration policy is riddled with contradictions. Refugees are compelled to put their lives in danger in order...

European asylum and migration policy is riddled with contradictions. Refugees are compelled to put their lives in danger in order to find protection. When crossing borders, they are forced to break the law in order to claim their right to asylum. They are expected to be at once in need of protection and willing to work, to integrate into their host countries, but to remain forever cap in hand. With great nuance, Judith Kohlenberger details the legal, social and political developments in our approach to fleeing and expulsion in the 20th and 21st centuries and exposes the paradoxes in current discourse. She provides intelligent and convincing answers to the question of what a humane asylum and integration policy could look like, and how Europe can live up to its responsibilities in this regard.

For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have been demonstrating in the streets of Israel to preserve their democracy. The...

For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have been demonstrating in the streets of Israel to preserve their democracy. The country is in the midst of its greatest crisis since its founding 75 years ago. In his partly autobiographical essay “Über Israel reden. Eine deutsche Debatte” (“Talking About Israel. A German Debate”), Meron Mendel addresses the major controversies of recent years, exploring Israel and the German raison d’état, anti­Semitism and the culture of remembrance, the so­called ‘Historikerstreit’ (historians’ dispute) and Documenta. As an educator, Mendel aims for a mediating position, seeking to build bridges between opponents. At the same time, he also ventures into the Middle East conflict itself, calling into question the entrenched ideas Israelis and Palestinians have of each other. A level­headed book that strives for balance in heated debates.

People are relying increasingly on morality to justify their positions in current social debates. But what is this human “morality”...

People are relying increasingly on morality to justify their positions in current social debates. But what is this human “morality” anyway, how did it emerge as a successful concept in human history, what is its universal core and how does it manifest differently from one culture to another? Sauer’s comprehensive cultural history of morality from the dawn of humanity to the present provides a solid basis for the highly topical moral debates of our time – intelligently written and entertaining, it invites us to question our own convictions.

The principles of freedom, democracy and national self-determination are under attack in Ukraine today. This may sound melodramatic, but the...

The principles of freedom, democracy and national self-determination are under attack in Ukraine today. This may sound melodramatic, but the historian of Eastern Europe Martin Schulze Wessel justifies this position masterfully with a history of the Russia Empire. Eruditely retracing the history of Russia, Poland and Ukraine since Peter the Great, he describes how Moscow’s imperial policy towards its neighbours was accompanied by an anti-Western attitude that persists to this day. An oppressive history lesson, his book opens our eyes to the mindset of Putin and his regime and its contempt for a diverse Western civil society.

Nothing about the circumstances of Elisabeth Wellershaus’s childhood was clear cut. She grew up in an affluent neighbourhood in Hamburg,...

Nothing about the circumstances of Elisabeth Wellershaus’s childhood was clear cut. She grew up in an affluent neighbourhood in Hamburg, the daughter of a black father and white mother. Decades later, the author now reports on foreignness in Germany and on a future that cannot have fixed identity attributions if it is to be productive. The book is an attempt to move beyond the debates about racism and identity politics without ignoring them. The author’s subjective narrative employs calm, sensitive language to observe and describe with great precision. She does not find certainty in community and collectivism – only grey areas and the realisation that we can be at home in the in-between.