Ein Land, ein Preis? Transformationen der deutschen Literaturpreislandschaft in den letzten hundert Jahren

The practice of awarding and honouring authors and literary works has always been an important instrument for the literary system and for the cultural policy of every country: This article intends to make an historical analysis of literary prizes in Germany during the 20th Century. The most important prizes and their functions will be analysed here, along with their similarities and differences. Furthermore we will focus our attention on the most recent German prizes and on their main features in order to understand how literary prizes work nowadays in Germany.