Culture Minister Claudia Roth (Greens) presented the German Bookstore Award to 118 bookstores in Frankfurt (Oder) on Sunday. According to the jury, the award was given to bookstores that had made an outstanding contribution to the book heritage over the past year. One of the three major prizes worth 25,000 euros went to North Rhine-Westphalia. The “buchLaden 46” from Bonn was named “best bookstore” together with the “Buchpalast” from Munich and the “Robert Philipp Buchhandlung” from Kamenz in Saxony. The store on Kaiserstrasse once again won the bookstore award.
Roth emphasized that bookstores are natural allies and guarantors of freedom of expression. “In particular, through readings and literary events, democratic debate helps achieve its purpose of speech and counterspeech, contradiction and debate,” the Minister of Culture said.
Awards for owner-run bookstores
In the second highest category, “Particularly Outstanding Bookstores”, a cash prize of 15,000 euros each went to the “Ute Hentschel Bookstore” from Burscheid (North Rhine-Westphalia), the “Brencher Bookstore” and the “Gebecke Bookstore and Antiquariat” from Kassel (Saxony-Anhalt), the “Buchhandlung zum Wetzstein” from Freiburg and the “der buchladen” from Saarbrücken.
Additionally, 100 bookstores were awarded the “Best Bookstores” award with a bonus of 7,000 euros each, 15 of them in North Rhine-Westphalia. Ten bookstores received the additive-free quality seal.
Since 2015, the Federal Government has been awarding the German Bookshop Prize worth a total of 850,000 euros to small owner-operated bookstores.
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