German Non-Fiction Prize 2025: Experience the award ceremony live from the Elbphilharmonie concert hall

German Non-Fiction Prize 2025: Experience the award ceremony live from the Elbphilharmonie concert hall

The suspense will end on 17 June 2025: the jury will announce the winner of the German Non-Fiction Prize 2025 in the Small Hall of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall. The award ceremony will be broadcast live from 6:00 pm. Katty Salié (ZDF, “aspekte”) will moderate the event. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, director of the Börsenverein, will deliver the opening remarks. This will mark the fifth time that the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) awards the prize to an original German-language edition of an outstanding non-fiction book that inspires social debate.

Book lovers can follow the award ceremony on multiple platforms: it will be broadcast live on www.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de and simultaneously streamed by the radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur on www.deutschlandradio.de/debatten.

The books nominated for the prize are:

• Ingo Dachwitz & Sven Hilbig, Digitaler Kolonialismus. Wie Tech-Konzerne und Großmächte die Welt unter sich aufteilen (C.H.Beck), February 2025
• Aladin El-Mafaalani, Sebastian Kurtenbach & Klaus Peter Strohmeier, Kinder – Minderheit ohne Schutz. Aufwachsen in der alternden Gesellschaft (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), January 2025
• Franz-Stefan Gady, Die Rückkehr des Krieges. Warum wir wieder lernen müssen, mit Krieg umzugehen (Quadriga), October 2024
• Ines Geipel, Fabelland. Der Osten, der Westen, der Zorn und das Glück (S. Fischer), August 2024
• Martina Heßler, Sisyphos im Maschinenraum. Eine Geschichte der Fehlbarkeit von Mensch und Technologie (C.H.Beck), February 2025
• Walburga Hülk, Victor Hugo. Jahrhundertmensch (Matthes & Seitz Berlin), November 2024
• Bernhard Kegel, Mit Pflanzen die Welt retten. Grüne Lösungen gegen den Klimawandel (DuMont), October 2024
• Ulli Lust, Die Frau als Mensch. Am Anfang der Geschichte (Reprodukt), February 2025

As the media partner of the German Non-Fiction Prize, ZDF presents short video profiles of the nominated titles through its cultural programme “aspekte”. These videos are available on the Deutscher Sachbuchpreis – YouTube channel.

Following the award ceremony, the “aspekte” episode on 20 June 2025 at 11:30 pm (available on the ZDF website and app from 9:00 pm) will be dedicated to the German Non-Fiction Prize, exploring the themes of the nominated books and profiling this year’s award-winning authors.

Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation) is the main supporter of the prize, which is also backed by the city of Hamburg and Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Note to media representatives:
We are happy to assist with any questions you may have or in planning your coverage. You may still apply for accreditation to attend the award ceremony. We can also provide videos on the nominated titles, press photos, and audio and video material from the award ceremony. Please do not hesitate to contact us.