Philippe Sands awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2026

The French-British lawyer and author Philippe Sands was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade today at the Church of St. Paul in Frankfurt. Among the roughly 700 invited guests in attendance at the ceremony were Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig, Bundestag Vice President Omid Nouripour and Hesse’s State Minister for Higher Education, Science, Research and the Arts, Timon Gremmels. The speech honouring this year’s Peace Prize recipient was given by Mirjam Zadoff, the Austrian historian, Jewish studies scholar and director of the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. 

Philippe Sands delivered his acceptance speech under the title “The Albatross of Silence.” He began by listing the reasons why receiving the Peace Prize was special for him, among others “because the subject of peace is at the heart of themes that permeate my work […]: the burden and dangers of silence, the confrontation of wrongs, the rights of individuals and groups, and the indispensability of the rule of law.” He stated further: “Peace requires justice. Justice requires rules. Rules require law. And laws apply universally, not selectively. This is what the rule of law means.” 

Sands noted that today, however, “nationalisms and populisms” once again “beget racisms and antisemitism and islamophobia and more. Boundaries are violated, civilians targeted, crimes perpetrated, forces, impunities unleashed. Nature too is under assault, as this summer’s climate emergency confirmed.” He also pointed to the development of a new addiction, namely “to technologies and artificial intelligences that threaten to destroy us.” 

“What is to be done?” Sands asked, before articulating the importance of international law, the rules of the international community: “This is the time to stand up for them, not be silent; a time to face the facts, to uphold our principles, to build on them. It is a time to resist, not despair, for the rule of law is a long game.”

Sands argued that there is “no hierarchy among the various international crimes,” and that “[t]o kill as a war crime or a crime against humanity is not less grave than a genocide. These are all terrible crimes. They demand accountability and must be called out.” Sands remarked that Germany has “called out and acted on many horrors,” yet “on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank the German silence has been loud.” He went on to say: “I am aware too that some German leaders have begun to speak more sharply in their criticism of Israel’s actions. That is right, even if so tentative and limited. It is not antisemitic. It is not ‘anti-Israel’. It is truth.”

Bringing his speech to a close, Sands offered the following reflections: “This is what I know: silence is not the way. Not for a family. Not for a community. Not for a country. Which is where law and literature come together, telling stories, opening minds, bringing truth to power, confronting prejudice and double standards, excavating matters that some wish to hide.” He concluded his address with the words: “Let us know that silence shall hang like an albatross around our necks.”

In her speech honouring Philippe Sands, Mirjam Zadoff highlighted the recipient’s distinctive profile: “We honour a storyteller whose books combine literary excellence with historical precision. And we honour a world traveller whose curiosity, openness and cheerfulness lead him not only to distant corners of the present, but also to landscapes of the past.” Zadoff argued that although Sands does not shy away from the many abysses of our human existence, he is not driven by “gloom, bitterness or cynicism.” Instead, she noted, “it is a love of music, a love of the world and a love of humanity” that speak through his work. 

In his welcome address, Börsenverein Chair Sebastian Guggolz drew attention to Philippe Sands’ two roles, noting that as a lawyer at the International Criminal Court, Sands strives for clear and definitive outcomes, with legal rulings necessarily bringing clarity to a diffuse set of facts. As an author of narrative non-fiction, however, Guggolz argues that Sands has found “a form of expression that brings rendered judgments back into their full complexity.” For Philippe Sands the lawyer, Guggolz noted, “the opportunity to convey a story in narrative form serves as a liberating force; it unleashed his joy in storytelling, revealing his masterful grasp of ambiguous situations and people – perpetrators and victims alike – who are entangled in injustice and must live with its repercussions and consequences.”

In his official greeting, Mike Josef, Lord Mayor of Frankfurt, acknowledged the considerable challenges we face today, but argued that “fascism and antisemitism are never the solution; they are always the problem!” He used the ceremony in the Church of St. Paul as an opportunity to issue a reminder to us all: “We can succeed in fighting for freedom and democracy, but we must not forget that we can also fail,” adding “Let us act before it is too late.”

The Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association) has awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade) every year since 1950 on the final day of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Among the previous award recipients are Albert Schweitzer, Astrid Lindgren, Václav Havel, Jürgen Habermas, Susan Sontag, Navid Kermani, Margaret Atwood, Serhiy Zhadan, Salman Rushdie, Anne Applebaum and, last year, Karl Schlögel. The award is endowed with €25.000. 

A press photo will be available free of charge today at roughly 1:30 pm at www.boersenverein.de/pressefotos.

The speeches given by Philippe Sands and Mirjam Zadoff as well as the official greetings by Sebastian Guggolz and Mike Josef can be accessed online at www.friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de. 

On 11 November 2026, the book containing all the speeches delivered at the ceremony will be available in stores (Reclam Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-15-014840-2, €10).