International Stefan Heym Prize 2013 of the City of Chemnitz awarded to Christoph Hein

Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig: "With the International Stefan Heym Prize, we are honouring the life and work of a great son of our city. He exemplified what this prize honours: using the power of the free word to stand up against injustice. This is also what this year's prize winner Christoph Hein stands for. His work discusses the possibilities and limits of the individual to deal with social grievances at an outstanding literary level. In the GDR and later in reunified Germany, he was committed to the free and opinionated word. Heym and Hein remind us not to forget the use of our fundamental rights and freedoms, which we take for granted."

The award-winning writer Ingo Schulze gave a very personal laudatory speech for the prizewinner: "Christoph Hein is an author who I have experienced as a reader almost from the very beginning. If I didn't have the first edition, then the second or third, but I think I've probably read every one of his books. In any case, it must be said that Heym and Hein are among those who opened their mouths in different systems, who did not set themselves up as winners, although they could point to enough merits," he said in honour of his friend and colleague Christoph Hein.

The award winner Christoph Hein, who also signed the Golden Book of the City of Chemnitz after receiving the award: "I was very touched when I learnt that I was to receive the Stefan Heym Prize. Firstly because of the author Stefan Heym, whom I greatly admire for his work. His novels, for example, are highly intellectual and yet always have an entertaining edge. Secondly, because of his attitude in the GDR, where he dealt with the circumstances with great backbone and great pleasure, sometimes with cunning and trickery. It was his great self-confidence, which was a virtue, especially in the GDR. And thirdly, because I was able to get to know him and his wife personally and remember how marvellously he spoke about life in the various countries in which he had lived."

"Stefan would have been delighted that Christoph Hein received the prize," said Stefan Heym's widow, Inge Heym. "Christoph Hein spoke his mind without taking centre stage, when that still took courage."

Christoph Hein, born on 8 April 1944, is one of the most prominent authors of our time. His literary work includes novels, essays, short stories, theatre plays, poetry and children's books. He became internationally recognised in 1982 with the novella "Der fremde Freund" (published in Germany in 1983 under the title "Drachenblut"). His most famous novels include "Der Tangospieler" (1988) and "Willenbrock" (2000), which was made into a film by Andreas Dresen. His most recent work is "Weiskerns Nachlass" (2011). In 1998, Christoph Hein was elected the first president of the reunited P.E.N. Centre. He also served as co-editor of "Freitag" until 2006.

Christoph Hein was born in the Silesian village of Heizendorf and grew up in Bad Düben. In 1960, he moved to West Berlin in order to be able to graduate from high school as a pastor's son. Before studying logic and philosophy in Leipzig and Berlin (1967 to 1970), Hein earned his living as an assembly worker, bookseller and assistant director to Benno Besson at the Deutsches Theater and the Volksbühne. After completing his studies, he returned to the Volksbühne as a dramaturge, where he worked alongside Heiner Müller as in-house director from 1973. Christoph Hein has been a freelance writer since 1979. As a member of the P.E.N. Centre of the GDR, he also intervened critically in debates, protesting, for example, at the X. Writers' Congress in 1987 against censorship and two years later against the arrest of Václav Havel. On 4 November 1989, Christoph Hein was one of the speakers at the demonstration of creative artists on Berlin's Alexanderplatz.

Christoph Hein has received numerous awards, most recently the Uwe Johnson Prize (2012), the Eichendorff Literature Prize (2010) and the Walter Hasenclever Literature Prize (2008). He is also a recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit (1994). The Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz is awarded in memory of Stefan Heym, born on 10 April 1913 as the son of a Jewish merchant in Chemnitz and honorary citizen of the city.

The International Stefan Heym Prize is awarded every three years to outstanding authors and publicists who, like Stefan Heym, have shown themselves to be personalities who intervene in social and political debates in order to fight for moral values. The first winner in 2008 was the Israeli writer Amos Oz, and in 2011 the prize was awarded to Bora Ćosić. The prize is endowed with 40,000 euros. To mark the 100th anniversary of Stefan Heym's birth, the prize was awarded for the third time this year. The award ceremony is part of the week of celebrations surrounding Stefan Heym's 100th birthday. In the afternoon, the forecourt of the future State Museum of Archaeology was renamed Stefan Heym Square. The International Stefan Heym Conference will also take place on 11 and 12 April.