As of: February 8, 2024, 10:00 a.m
By: Sven Trautwein
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Three bookstores in Germany can look forward to taking first places among the best bookstores in Germany.
They were each awarded 25,000 euros.
The 118 winners of the German Bookstore Prize have been known for a few weeks.
Now Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth announced in Stuttgart who will receive the main prizes.
The “Buchladen am Freiheitsplatz” in Hanau (Hesse), “Hansen & Kröger” in Wiehl (North Rhine-Westphalia) and the “Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung”, Leipzig (Saxony) were recognized as the best bookstores in Germany.
They each received a top bonus of 25,000 euros.
The best bookstores in Germany were selected from 480 applications.
The top three winners can each look forward to 25,000 euros.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
With the German Bookstore Prize, the federal government honors small, owner-managed bookstores that offer a sophisticated and diverse literary range or a cultural event program, pursue innovative business models or are committed to promoting reading and literature for children and young people.
The prize, which includes prizes totaling 850,000 euros, is awarded in three categories to bookstores whose annual sales have been less than one million euros in the past three years, according to the press release.
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Books convey knowledge, different life experiences and diversity of thinking.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth
German Bookstore Prize: Bookstores are important cultural places
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth at the award ceremony: “Books convey knowledge, different life experiences and the diversity of thought.
This diversity is the hallmark of our democracy and literature is its ally.
But it is the many booksellers who provide a stage for literature and books as a cultural asset across the country, in cities and rural areas.
The fact that they can still rely on a loyal audience is shown by the broad interest among young people in buying books with the Federal Government's Culture Pass.
With orders now worth more than three million euros, books are the absolute frontrunners.
Each of these books ordered must be picked up by the young people at a local bookstore.
There they can get to know the whole variety of what is on offer, browse and discover new things.
Bookstores are important cultural places in our country that are present across the board.
We are all the more grateful to the booksellers for their daily commitment and, with the ninth awarding of the German Bookstore Prize, we once again recognize them for their important contribution to the culture of democracy.”
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The winners receive a seal of quality combined with bonuses of 7,000 euros, 15,000 euros or 25,000 euros each.
In addition, ten bookstores whose average annual sales were over one million euros were awarded an undoped seal of quality.
Almost 1,000 bookstores have been honored since 2015
Since the award was first presented in 2015, around 970 bookstores have been honored, with just over half of them being recognized at least twice.
In the past, this repeated recognition of bookstores has often provoked criticism of the way the award is given, reports the industry magazine
buchreport
.
Publishers have also recently received awards.
The German Publishing Prize was awarded here.
The award winners were selected from 480 applications by an independent jury of experts chaired by Knut Cordsen (moderator, literary critic).
Other jury members were Jim Baker (lateral publisher), Monika Bilstein (Peter Hammer Verlang), Christian Geschke (publishing representative), Britta Jürgs (AvivA Verlag), Shelly Kupferberg (journalist, presenter, author) and Melanie Raabe (author).
The partners of the German Bookstore Prize are the Kurt Wolff Foundation and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels.
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