Four projects honoured with Stefan Heym awards
The memory of Stefan Heym is kept alive in a variety of ways
On Friday evening, 9 February, Lord Mayor Sven Schulze will present the International Stefan Heym Sponsorship Award of the City of Chemnitz to five prizewinners in the City Council Chamber at City Hall. For the third time, these prizes will be awarded to projects and initiatives in the areas of research and estate management, for scholarships and to support school projects that deal with the life and work of Stefan Heym, the honorary citizen of the city of Chemnitz, in a special way.
Lord Mayor Sven Schulze: "Stefan Heym was an advocate of open discussion, the free exchange of opinions and democratic participation. His attitude encouraged people to also raise their voices and stand up for a just society. The International Stefan Heym Awards honour not only artistic brilliance, but also commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights. Values that are also of the utmost importance for our city. Today's honourees are not only ambassadors for their art, but also a source of inspiration for exchange and debate on the many facets of our society."
The award winners are:
Elisabeth Neuhaus - "Slam goes Heym"
With the poetry slam "Slam goes Heym", Elisabeth Neuhaus wants to familiarise a young audience with Stefan Heym. Heym's life, work and influence will form the thematic basis for pupils' own poetic texts, which will lead into the modern format of the poetry slam. The project combines creative writing, a public presentation and an examination of the poet of the century Stefan Heym and his life.
Katja Wenzel - Black perspectives in the context of the GDR, exemplified by Stefan Heym's exchange with the African-Americans Oliver Harrington and Aubrey Pankey
Katja Wenzel researches parallels, differences and interactions in Heym's relationships with the two African-American artists who decided to live in the GDR. Heym, Harrington and Pankey were united by the experience of arbitrary attributions of 'nation' and 'race'. How did they reflect on and artistically process the discrepancy between anti-racist symbolic politics and real experiences of discrimination? The project poses these and other questions and thus provides a differentiated view of the GDR. As part of her research, the freelance dramaturge and author is planning interviews with contemporary witnesses and visits to the "Stefan Heym archive" in Cambridge.
Gerald Richter and Marian Kretschmer - youth art project "Go your own way"
Gerald Richter and Marian Kretschmer receive the sponsorship awards for the second time for a multi-faceted project: their previously award-winning graphic novel on the life of Stefan Heym will now be presented to and discussed with pupils. A film project with short videos about Heym is also planned. There will also be an (art) workshop on Heym's works, in which illustrations and large-format banners will be created. The results of the project will be blogged on the internet and published via social media.
Ingrid Schreyer - "Encounters with Stefan Heym from 1964 to 2001 in the Ahrenshooper Künstlerhaus Schreyer" - book project
In her project, Ingrid Schreyer describes her relationship with Stefan Heym. The experiences are to be published in book form. The result is a new literary work on the life of Stefan Heym and thus a new approach in the field of estate research.
Background: The International Stefan Heym Prizes
Since 2017, the International Stefan Heym Prizes have been awarded in addition to the International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz. They have a total value of 20,000 euros.Individuals, initiatives, institutions, private and public organisations and associations can apply. The sponsored projects should be realised within the three years or so until the next International Stefan Heym Prize is awarded. A description of the project (max. two pages in A4 format), a cost and financing plan, a public relations plan for the project and a timetable must be submitted with the application.
The Board of Trustees for the International Stefan Heym Prize decides who receives the award. The patron of the Board of Trustees is Inge Heym, the widow of Stefan Heym. The Board of Trustees also includes representatives from the International Stefan Heym Society, the Goethe-Institut, Chemnitz University of Technology, the PEN Centre Germany and the City of Chemnitz.
Background: The International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz
The International Stefan Heym Prize is awarded in honour of Stefan Heym, the son and honorary citizen of the city of Chemnitz. With the International Stefan Heym Prize, the City of Chemnitz honours authors and publicists who have made an outstanding contribution to public discourse in the spirit of Stefan Heym. The literary work of the prizewinners sets lasting accents that are of importance to society as a whole. The International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz is awarded every three years and, at 20,000 euros, is one of the most highly endowed literary prizes in Germany.
In April 2023, the German writer Jenny Erpenbeck was honoured with the International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz. She was preceded by Amos Oz (2008), Bora Ćosić (2011), Christoph Hein (2013), Joanna Bator (2017), Slavenka Drakulić and Richard Swartz (2020).
(PM amended on 12 February 2024)