All the German Book Prize winners
The top 3 according to 3 votes from people: We Are Doing Fine — Arno Geiger · The Have-Nots — Katharina Hacker · In Times of Fading Light — Eugen Ruge. (Updated Sep 1, 2025.)
The twenty novels awarded the German Book Prize for the best German-language novel of the year since 2005.
Automatically translated (original in Deutsch). See the original
Top 20
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1
We Are Doing Fine — Arno Geiger
2005. Three generations of a Viennese family; the first winner.
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2
The Have-Nots — Katharina Hacker
2006. A couple between Berlin and London after 9/11.
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3
In Times of Fading Light — Eugen Ruge
2011. Four generations of an East German family.
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4
The Blind Side of the Heart — Julia Franck
2007. A mother abandons her son at a station in 1945.
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5
The Tower — Uwe Tellkamp
2008. Dresden's educated middle class in the final years of East Germany.
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6
Du stirbst nicht — Kathrin Schmidt
2009. A woman wakes up speechless after a brain haemorrhage.
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7
Fly Away, Pigeon — Melinda Nadj Abonji
2010. A family from Vojvodina in Switzerland.
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8
Landgericht — Ursula Krechel
2012. A Jewish judge returns from exile in Cuba.
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9
The Monster — Terézia Mora
2013. A widower travels across Eastern Europe with his wife's diaries.
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10
Kruso — Lutz Seiler
2014. Drop-outs on the island of Hiddensee in East Germany's last summer.
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11
The Invention of the Red Army Faction by a Manic-Depressive Teenager in the Summer of 1969 — Frank Witzel
2015. An 800-page novel about old West Germany.
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12
Widerfahrnis — Bodo Kirchhoff
2016. Two strangers drive together to southern Italy.
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13
The Capital — Robert Menasse
2017. A satirical novel about the European Commission in Brussels.
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14
Archipel — Inger-Maria Mahlke
2018. Tenerife in the 20th century, told in reverse.
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15
Where You Come From — Saša Stanišić
2019. Memories of Višegrad, flight and Heidelberg.
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16
Annette, A Heroic Epic — Anne Weber
2020. The life of Resistance fighter Anne Beaumanoir in verse.
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17
Blue Woman — Antje Rávik Strubel
2021. A young Czech woman in Helsinki after a rape.
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18
Blutbuch — Kim de l'Horizon
2022. A non-binary narrator and the grandmother's history.
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19
Echtzeitalter — Tonio Schachinger
2023. A pupil at an elite Viennese school and video games.
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20
Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir? — Martina Hefter
2024. A performer and a night-time romance scammer.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (1)
Der Turm von Uwe Tellkamp, DDR-Roman par excellence.