Kassel (dpa) – The Herta Müller Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded the Jacob Grimm Prize for the German Language. The author received the award, endowed with 30,000 euros, on Saturday in Kassel.

In her acceptance speech, the author recalled the situation in which her words were most important, namely when asked by the Romanian secret service. “The state of the interrogation was the most incomprehensible to me in terms of language,” he said. “During the interrogation, the speech shines in the mouth and what is said freezes.”

Christoph Stölzl, President of the Liszt School of Music Weimar, thanked Müller for his “richness of thoughts, memories and images in the German language”. In her works, she produced an “existential thought”, sharpened by enduring extreme situations. “Especially in the year that the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989, it was the right voice at the right time. who insisted that there is much to say now “.

The undeclared German Language Institutional Award went to the “Wissen macht Ah!” of WDR. The German Language Initiative Award, usually endowed with 5,000 euros, was not awarded this year. The jury had announced a poetry competition for the prize. According to the announcement, the winner had to be determined by the audience at the awards ceremony on Saturday. According to the jury, this award ceremony was canceled because there were not enough suitable candidates.

The German Sponsorship Culture Prize is awarded by the Eberhard Schöck Foundation (Baden-Baden) and the Verein Deutsche Sprache e. V. (Dortmund) for special services in the German language in Kassel. The previous winners were Udo Lindenberg, Ulrich Tukur, Loriot, Norbert Lammert and Fantastischen Vier.