Academy member Ursula Krechel honored with the 2025 Martha Saalfeld Prize

Author Ursula Krechel was awarded this year's Martha Saalfeld Prize for her literary oeuvre. At the award ceremony on December 1, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Altes Kaufhaus in Landau, State Secretary Jürgen Hardeck presented the prize on behalf of Rhineland-Palatinate's Minister of Culture, Katharina Binz. The laudatory speech was given by Petra Plättner, former spokesperson for the Literature and Music Class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature.

"The awarding of this year's Martha Saalfeld Prize brings us full circle, as Ursula Krechel was one of the recipients of the Martha Saalfeld Sponsorship Award, which was presented for the first time in 1994. This year, we are now honoring one of the most important voices in contemporary German-language literature with the main prize", said State Secretary Hardeck. "In her works, Ursula Krechel often focuses on little-noticed perspectives of historical events. With precise language, she gives a voice to people and their fates. Her entire oeuvre thus combines poetic ambition with social relevance".

Ursula Krechel, born in 1947, has published numerous poetry collections, prose works, radio plays, and essays. Her most recent novel is 'Sehr geehrte Frau Ministerin' (Dear Madam Minister, 2025). Krechel has received numerous awards for her work and commitment, including the Joseph Breitbach Prize (2009), the German Book Prize (2012), the Jean Paul Prize (2019), the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2020), and the Georg Büchner Prize (2025). She is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz, the German Academy for Language and Literature, and the Academy of Arts Berlin.

The prize is named after Martha Saalfeld, a poet, storyteller, and playwright who was born in Landau in 1898 and died in Bad Bergzabern in 1976. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate awards the prize annually in cooperation with the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) to authors from Rhineland-Palatinate whose literary work has gained recognition beyond the state's borders. The prize is endowed with €8,000.