László Krasznahorkai receives award
The winner of the highest literary award, László Krasznahorkai, is an alumni of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Programme.
Stockholm (d.de) – The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to László Krasznahorkai, who lived in Berlin from 1987 until 1988. The writer had been invited by the Artists-in-Berlin Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to live and work in the capital city that was still divided at the time. He is the seventh Artists-in-Berlin Fellow to receive this highest literary award.
Germany has always been a key reference point of Krasznahorkai’s work, which the Swedish Academy described as “compelling and visionary”. The author’s 2021 novel “Herscht 07769” is the story of a village community in Thuringia in Eastern Germany in which neo-Nazis gain influence. The book addresses the question, when and how democratic societies should respond to emerging right-wing ideologies.
“We are delighted that László Krasznahorkai as yet another alumni of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Programme is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature,” said DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee. “The fact that Mr Krasznahorkai spent a year in Berlin underscores the international importance of the programme as a hub of free artistic exchange.”
Since 1963, more than 1,200 artists from the areas of fine art, film, literature and music have been invited by the Artists-in-Berlin Programme to live and work in Berlin.