On June 8, this year’s German Nonfiction Prize will be presented at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Eight authors are nominated for the prestigious awards – and seven of them already took a seat on the “Blue Sofa” at Bertelsmann Unter den Linden 1 in Berlin last Tuesday. The eighth nominee, Heike Behrend, had to cancel due to illness. In conversations with hosts Christiane Wirtz and Jens-Christian Rabe, the authors presented their nominated books as part of the popular Bertelsmann cultural format. Around 140 guests, including Astrid Böhmisch, Director of the Leipzig Book Fair, enjoyed equally exciting and enlightening discussions about the nominated books as well as pressing issues of our time.
Discussion followed by a reception
The guests on the “Blue Sofa” were Florence Gaub with her book “Szenario. Die Zukunft steht auf dem Spiel” (Dtv), Tilmann Lahme with “Thomas Mann. Ein Leben” (Dtv), Konstantin Richter with “Dreihundert Männer. Aufstieg und Fall der Deutschland AG” (Suhrkamp), Irina Scherbakowa with “Der Schlüssel würde noch passen. Moskauer Erinnerungen” (Droemer), Bettina Schöne-Seifert with “Leben, Körper, Tod. Zwölf aktuelle Kontroversen der Medizinethik” (Wallstein), Roberto Simanowski with “Sprachmaschinen. Eine Philosophie der künstlichen Intelligenz” (C. H.Beck), and Ronen Steinke with “Meinungsfreiheit. Wie Polizei und Justiz unser Grundrecht einschränken – und wie wir es verteidigen” (Berlin Verlag). A reception held at Bertelsmann’s representative offices later offered an opportunity for further discussions with the authors.
239 book submissions
The German Publishers and Booksellers Association’s Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading (Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels) recognizes the German Nonfiction Book of the Year with the German Nonfiction Prize. The prize recognizes outstanding nonfiction books in original German-language editions that provide an impetus for social debate on important topics. The German Nonfiction Prize aims to promote the importance of nonfiction books as a basis for knowledge transfer, differentiated opinion-forming, and public discourse. This year, the jury reviewed a total of 239 book submissions from 132 publishers that were published since April 2025.
The full video recordings of this event will be available in the “Blue Sofa” media library shortly. In addition, the conversations will be published via the podcast channel “Das Blaue Sofa – Neue Bücher. Starke Stimmen.” (“The Blue Sofa – New Books. Strong Voices”).
