Goethe-Büste, Foto: Uwe Dettmar
The Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main, established in the year 1927, is to be awarded every year to celebrate the birthday of Goethe on August 28. It is foreseen for personalities whose work has already won them prestige and whose creative input is worthy of an award honouring Goethe. Following a decision of municipal authorities in 1952, the "Award of the Goethe Prize" only takes place every three years. The "Goethe Prize" is a certificate written on parchment and a monetary award of € 50,000.
Prizewinners
1927 Stefan George, poet
1928 Albert Schweitzer, physician and philosopher
1929 Leopold Ziegler, philosopher
1930 Sigmund freud, psychoanalyst
1931 Ricarda Huch, poetess
1932 Gerhard Hauptmann, poet
1933 Hermann Stehr, poet
1934 Hans Pfitzner, musician (Due to his connection to the National Socialism the reception of Pfitzners work is controversial today.)
1935 Hermann Stegemann, writer
1936 Georg Kolbe, sculptor
1937 Guido Kolbenheyer, poet and philosopher
1938 Hans Carossa, physician and poet
1939 Carl Bosch, chemist
1940 Agnes Miegel, poetess
1941 Wilhelm Schäfer, poet
1942 Richard Kuhn, physician
1945 Max Planck, physicist
1946 Hermann Hesse, poet
1947 Karl Jaspers, philosopher
1948 Fritz von Unruh, poet
1949 Thomas Mann, poet
1952 Carl Zuckmeyer, poet
1955 Anette Kolb, poetess
1958 Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker, natural scientist and philosopher
1960 Ernst Beutler, writer
1961 Walter Gropius, architect
1964 Benno Reifenberg, writer and journalist
1967 Carlo Schmid, scientist and politician
1970 Georg Lukács, philosopher, literary scientist and humanist
1973 Arno Schmidt, poet
1976 Ingmar Bergmann, film director
1979 Raymond Aron, sociologist and journalist
1982 Ernst Jünger, writer
1985 Golo Mann, historian
1988 Peter Stein, theatre director
1991 Wislawa Szyborska, lyricist
1994 Sir Ernst Gombrich, O.M. art historian
1997 Hans Zender, composer and conductor
1999 Siegfried Lenz, writer
2002 Marcel Reich-Ranicki, literature critic
2005 Amos Oz, writer
2008 Pina Bausch, choreographer
2011 Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said), poet
2014 Peter von Matt, literary scholar
2017 Ariane Mnouchkine, theatre manager and director
2020 Dževad Karahasan, author
2023 Barbara Honigmann, author