Judith Beyer
đŸ§”The debacle around the #GermanBookstorePrize / German Minister of Culture #Weimer ("culture tsar" acc. to The Guardian!) reminds me of #HannahArendt accepting the #Lessing prize in 1959. Some thoughts on coercive gift-giving & on solidarity. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why independent bookshops stri...
Why independent bookshops strike fear in the heart of Germany’s culture tsar

First he came for Berlin’s film festival. Now it’s books. Wolfram Weimer seems to be on a mission to curb progressive thinking, says Guardian Europe columnist Fatma Aydemir

The Guardian
Mar 10 at 8:22pmWeb
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
Anthropologists know: a gift is only a gift if it is being accepted in an appropriate manner. The acceptance of a prize is by giving a speech in which one expresses one’s gratitude “toward the world” whom one “owes” and to whom one is “committed”. An honor is “imposed” upon the speaker, so #Arendt
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
These were all Arendt’s words from her acceptance speech in the city of Hamburg. She seemed well aware of the coercive nature of gift-giving. When she was awarded the Lessing price, she was expected to enter into dialogue with those who had participated in the Holocaust (in what role whatsoever) ...
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
In his laudatio, the cultural senator of Hamburg spoke of the wish to “reclaim Arendt for us”, ignoring that #Arendt had characterized the purpose of a laudatio in her own laudatio to #KarlJaspers the year before as having to focus on “the dignity of the person” www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM7q...

Karl Jaspers - Laudatio von H...
Karl Jaspers - Laudatio von Hannah Arendt

YouTube
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
In Hamburg, #Arendt played the role in which she was being cast by wearing “the mask of Lessing”, as it was put during a roundtable organized by the Koerber Foundation in 2023. As it turned out, Arendt had been right to distance herself from being ‘reclaimed’ ... koerber-stiftung.de/mediathek/vo...

„Von der Menschlichkeit in fin...
„Von der Menschlichkeit in finsteren Zeiten“

Hamburg, 1959. Die Philosophin und Publizistin Hannah Arendt reist aus New York an, um den Lessing-Preis der Hansestadt Hamburg in Empfang zu nehmen. „Wir wĂŒnschen Sie zu reklamieren als die Unsrige, und es wĂ€re uns eine große und 


Körber-Stiftung
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
The next Lessing prize, awarded in 1962, went to the art historian and co-founder of the #Documenta, Werner Haftmann. In 2021, the historian Carlo Gentile revealed in an article in SĂŒddeutsche Zeitung, that Haftmann had been a member of the SA since 1933... www.ns-taeter-italien.org/en/team/das-...

Dr. Carlo Gentile | NS-TĂ€ter i...
Dr. Carlo Gentile | NS-TĂ€ter in Italien

NS-TĂ€ter in Italien
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
When three book shops were dismissed from the German Book Prize by the Cultural Minister, something remarkable happened: First, some of those nominated declared that they would no longer accept the prize themselves... www.boersenblatt.net/news/buchhan...

Offener Brief an Wolfram Weime...
Offener Brief an Wolfram Weimer

Dennis Hasemann, Inhaber von Schmitz. die Buchhandlung in Essen, nimmt den Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis nicht an. In einem offenen Brief kritisiert er den nachtrÀglichen Eingriff des Staatsministeriums in das Juryvotum.

Börsenblatt
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
Then, more than half of the 115 book stores declared, that they would pool their own resources to make up for the three stores' missed prize money. All of the 115 book stores wrote an open letter in which they expressed solidarity with the three book stores... www.boersenblatt.net/news/werden-...

"Werden den Kolleginnen und Ko...
"Werden den Kolleginnen und Kollegen ihr Preisgeld ersetzen"

Die 115 Buchhandlungen, die mit dem Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis nominiert sind, stellen sich geschlossen hinter die drei ausgeschlossenen linken BuchlĂ€den. Sie kĂŒndigen an, ein eigenes Preisgeld auszuschĂŒtten – und die Preisvergabe in Leipzig fĂŒr ein Zeichen nutzen zu wollen. Das Statement im Wortlaut.

Börsenblatt
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
Finally, those nominated promised to invite the three book stores on their own and throw their own party ... "(We) don't want to let anything spoil our party and already have a few ideas on how we can make that happen..." they announced...
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
I light of this outpour of solidarity, the Cultural Minister cancelled the ceremony! The offical reasoning: "In such a context, it seems hardly possible to give the award winners the recognition they deserve." The opposite is true: it is #Weimer who would no longer be able to act as the gift-giver.
Show threadJudith BeyerMar 10
By declaring their solidarity with "Buchladen zur schwankenden Weltkugel" (Berlin), "Rote Straße" (Göttingen) and "Golden Shop" (Bremen), those who were tasked to accept a gift by the Minister, refused to play the role in which they were cast. #HannahArendt would have been proud of them all !