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The Nannen Prize honors outstanding work in German-language journalism
Photo:
Lukas Schulze / picture alliance / dpa
In recent years there has been a lot of trouble about the Nannen Prize.
Now Gruner + Jahr and "Stern" have reacted: The journalists' prize will be awarded once this year as the "STERN Prize", the publisher announced on Friday.
The background is the debate about »Stern« founder and namesake Henri Nannen.
According to recent research into the NDR format »STRG_F«, Nannen is said to have been involved in spreading anti-Semitic propaganda during the Second World War.
A debate then broke out on social networks as to whether the award for outstanding journalistic achievements should still bear his name.
No role model
However, it was already known that Nannen had been a member of a war correspondent company at the end of the Second World War.
As early as 2014, the journalist Jacob Appelbaum, who was awarded the prize, threatened to melt down the prize in protest.
Appelbaum explained at the time that Nannen was not a role model because he had carried out Nazi propaganda.
In addition to the one-time renaming of the prize, the publisher and Stern want to convene a committee that will advise on the future use of the name for the prize and also for the Henri Nannen School, it said.
On this basis, the publisher and magazine want to decide by the end of the year how they will proceed in the future.
»Get to the bottom of things«
In addition, the "star" will deal with the allegations.
In the coming year, they want to deal more intensively with the early years of the magazine, according to Gregor Peter Schmitz, editor-in-chief of "Stern": "This is not dismantling and certainly not a campaign - it is one of the basic virtues of journalism: things up go to the bottom and make a balanced judgement."
The Nannen Prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in words and pictures.
The Gruner + Jahr publishing house has been presenting the award in its present form since 2005.
The categories this year are "Story of the Year", "Local", "Investigation" and "Egon Erwin Kisch Prize".
For example, the SPIEGEL text “Why Julian Reichelt had to go” was shortlisted as story of the year.
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