German Non-Fiction Prize 2022 – The Award Ceremony

Bettina Baltschev was born in 1973 in Berlin, and studied cultural studies, journalism and philosophy in Leipzig and Groningen. She is executive director of the Saxony Literature Council, an author and editor for the public broadcaster MDR, and commutes between Leipzig and her second home in Amsterdam. Her previous book, entitled ‘Hölle und Paradies. Amsterdam, Querido und die deutsche Exilliteratur’ (Hell and Paradise. Amsterdam, Querido and German Literature in Exile), was published by Berenberg in 2016.

Alice Bota was born in 1979 in Krapkowice, Upper Silesia, Poland, and emigrated to northern Germany in 1988. After studying politics and modern German literature, she attended the Deutsche Journalistenschule. She has worked as an editor for Die Zeit since 2007, and is a member of the foreign affairs team. She has been head of the Die Zeit office in Moscow since 2015, with responsibility for the post-soviet region. She regularly travels to Belarus, Ukraine and the South Caucasus. Alice Bota has been recipient of numerous awards, including the Axel Springer Prize and the Deutscher Journalistenpreis. Her book ‘Wir neuen Deutschen’ (We, the new Germans), written with Khuê Pham und Özlem Topçu, was published in 2012.

Stefan Creuzberger was born in 1961 in Calw and is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rostock and Director of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Research and Documentation Centre for the History of Dictatorships in Germany. He publishes works on German and Russian history in the 20th century, and is co-editor of the Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (AAPD) and a member of the Joint German-Russian History Commission.

Samira El Ouassil was born in 1984 in Munich, and is a German author, actress, musician and politician (Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative). She has written the ‘Wochenschau’ column for the online portal Übermedien since September 2018, and has co-hosted the Audible philosophy podcast ‘Sag niemals Nietzsche’ with Christiane Stenger since 2019. In 2020, she began writing an online column for Der Spiegel. Since 2020 she has also been co-host, together with Friedemann Karig, of the podcast ‘Piratensender Powerplay’. El Ouassil is a singer in the band Kummer, and a Mensa member.

Friedemann Karig was born in 1982 and studied media studies, politics, sociology and economics. He now writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, SZ-Magazin, Die Zeit and jetzt. He has hosted ‘Jäger & Sammler’ – a programme which has been nominated for the Grimme Prize – on funk, the online youth channel from ARD and ZDF. His literary debut was entitled ‘Dschungel’ (Jungle), and his book ‘Wie wir lieben. Vom Ende der Monogamie’ (How We Live. The End of Monogamy) was published in 2017. Karig lives in Berlin and Munich.

Ludwig Huber was born in 1964, and is a professor and director of the interdisciplinary Messerli Research Institute of Human-Animal Studies at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. He is founder and head of the Department of Comparative Cognition, which focuses on research into the cognitive and emotional abilities of animals.

Stephan Malinowski was born in Berlin in 1966, and has studied and taught history in Berlin, France, Italy, the USA and Ireland. He has taught European history at the University of Edinburgh since 2012. His book ‘Vom König zum Führer’ (published in English as ‘Nazis and Nobles’), about the German nobility and the Nazi movement, was awarded the Hans Rosenberg Prize. His expert report prepared on behalf of the state of Brandenburg in 2014 continues to play an important role in discussions over the restitution claims presented by the ‘head of the house’ of Hohenzollern.

Steffen Mau teaches macrosociology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His most recently published books are ‘Das metrische Wir. Über die Quantifizierung des Sozialen” (The Metric Us. Quantifying the Social) (2017) and “Lütten Klein. Leben in der ostdeutschen Transformationsgesellschaft” (Lütten Klein. Life in East German Transformation Society) (2019). In 2021, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation.

Natan Sznaider was born in 1954 in Mannheim, and has worked as Professor of Sociology at the Tel Aviv Academic College since 1994. His most recent publications include: ‘Gesellschaften in Israel: Eine Einführung in zehn Bildern’ (Communities in Israel: An Introduction in Ten Images)(Suhrkamp 2017), ‘Neuer Antisemitismus? Fortsetzung einer globalen Debatte’ (New Antisemitism? Continuing the Global Debate)(edition suhrkamp 2019, with Christian Heilbronn and Doron Rabinovici) and ‘Politik des Mitgefühls. Die Vermarktung der Gefühle in der Demokratie’ (The Politics of Compassion. Democracy’s Commercialisation of Emotions) (Beltz Juventa 2021).