Wilhelm Heinse Medal

From 1978 to 2001 the Academy awarded the Wilhelm-Heinse-Medal, which was granted for essayistic literature in the broadest sense of the word, to the writer. The medal is the last sculptural work by the Munich sculptor Toni Stadler. In order to ensure continuity and at the same time limit the prize, 20 casts of the medal were taken. Afterwards the medal was no longer awarded.

The medal bears the name of the poet Wilhelm Heinse (1746-1803). Since 1786 Heinse was a reader and later, from 1787 onwards, a librarian of the Elector Karl Joseph in Mainz and his court with his ›Ardinghello und die glückseeligen Inseln‹ (engl.: Ardinghello and the blissful islands). Through new impulses Heinse had a lasting influence on the art and music writing of his time, but also on that of the Romantic age.