Prizes and Foundations

The Academy awards prizes and scholarships for outstanding artistic achievement as well as for the development of young artists.

The most important prizes include the Berlin Art Prize – Jubilee Endowment 1848/1948, awarded on behalf of the Federal State of Berlin in all six art Sections. Other significant Academy prizes are the Käthe Kollwitz Award, the Heinrich Mann Award (for essay writing), and the Konrad Wolf Award.

In addition, the Academy also awards prizes donated by members, such as the Busoni Composition Prize, endowed in1988 by Aribert Reimann, and maintains the Daniel Chodowiecki Foundation, formed by Günter Grass to promote Polish visual artists.

Cross-sectional Prizes and Foundations

Berlin Art Prize – Jubilee Endowment 1848/1948

The Berlin Art Prize – Grand Prize together with the Berlin Art Prizes in each of the six art Sections represented in the Academy are awarded annually on 18th March on behalf of the Federal State of Berlin in remembrance of the 1848 revolution.
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Berlin Scholarship

Every year, each of the six Art Sections of the Academy selects two international artists for the scholarship, which involves working and residing in Berlin. The Academy studios in Hanseatenweg are available for working and living in.
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Villa Serpentara Scholarship

This three-month residency scholarship in the Villa Serpentara in Olevano Romano/Italy is primarily awarded to Berlin artists. The scholarships are awarded by decision of the Academy Senate based on suggestions made by the Sections.
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Collective Foundation I

The Collective Foundation I of the Akademie der Künste is the oldest of the foundations it maintains. The purpose of the foundation is to provide assistance to talented and needy students in the Sections Visual Arts, Architecture, Music, Literature, Performing Arts as well as Film and Media Art. 

A personal application is not possible  

Eduard Arnhold and Max Taut Aid Fund for Artists Foundation 

The Eduard Arnhold Aid Fund for Artists foundation was established in 1930 by the widow of the honorary Academy member Eduard Arnhold, Johanna Arnhold, and in 1971/72 was given by the Arnhold family into the keeping of the Academy. The purpose of the foundation, which in 2003 was combined together with the Max Taut Foundation (itself an Academy foundation since 1978) and since then bears the name “Eduard Arnhold and Max Taut Aid Fund for Artists Foundation”, is to provide assistance to talented artists “of all sorts” who face economic hardship.

Visual Arts Section Prizes and Foundations

Käthe Kollwitz Prize

The Käthe Kollwitz Prize is awarded annually to a visual artist in honour of a single work or his/her overall achievement.  
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Will Grohmann Prize    

This foundation prize from the legacy of Will Grohmann has been awarded annually on 4th December “to young painters, graphic artists and sculptors who display talent and individuality”.
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Daniel Chodowiecki Foundation Daniel Chodowiecki Prize for Polish Drawing and Graphic Design

In 1992 Günter Grass founded the Daniel Chodowiecki Foundation with the purpose of promoting German-Polish cultural relations by honouring Polish visual artists. The Foundation awards the Daniel Chodowiecki Prize for Polish Drawing and Graphic Design.
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Saarland Scholarship

A working and residency scholarship in the field of visual arts. The Academy studios on Hanseatenweg are available for this purpose. The scholarship is borne by the Federal State of Saarland Representation in Berlin.
Young Academy / Scholarship programme

Music Section Prizes and Foundations

Busoni Composition Prize

The Busoni Composition Prize, donated by Aribert Reimann in 1988, is awarded every two to three years to young composers not yet known to the public. The prize is intended for composition students.
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Literature Section Prizes and Foundations

Heinrich Mann Prize

This prize for essay writing is awarded annually on the occasion of the anniversary of Heinrich Mann’s birth on 27th March by an independent three-member jury.
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Alfred Döblin Prize

The Alfred Döblin Prize, donated by Günter Grass in 1979, is for unpublished literary works of an epic character and is awarded every two years by the Akademie der Künste jointly with the Literary Colloquium Berlin. Personal application is possible.
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Alfred Döblin Scholarship

A residency scholarship of the Alfred Döblin Prize Foundation for Berlin writers in the Alfred Döblin House in Wewelsfleth/Schleswig-Holstein for a three-month period. The request for applications for the following year is announced annually in July.
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Lion Feuchtwanger Prize

A Foundation Prize for historical prose awarded every two to three years on the occasion of the anniversary of the birthday of Lion Feuchtwanger on 7th July.
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Weiskopf Wedding Prize

This Foundation Prize is the successor to the former Alex Wedding Prize and the F. C. Weiskopf Prize. It is awarded for linguistically critical or reflective works or for children's and young people's books.
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Performing Arts Section Prizes and Foundations

Konrad Wolf Prize

Named after the film director and long-standing President of the East German Akademie der Künste, the prize is awarded for outstanding artistic achievement in the fields of the performing arts as well as film and media art.
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Joana Maria Gorvin Prize

A prize endowed by Maximilian B. Bauer in 1995 in memory of his wife, the actress Joana Maria Gorvin, and awarded every five years by five male members of the Performing Arts Section.
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Tilla Durieux Jewellery

In 1967 on the occasion of her 65th stage jubilee, the actress Tilla Durieux donated a necklace containing 34 zircons set in platinum to be awarded every ten years to an “outstanding female representative of German dramatic art”.
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Hermine Körner Ring

The Hermine Körner Ring is an award for a lifework. The antique style Persian coin was initially willed by Hermine Körner (1978 - 1960 to her colleague Roma Bahn. On her death the ring is always to be in the possession of an “actress striving for excellence“.
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O. E. Hasse Foundation, O. E. Hasse Prize

The O. E. Foundation was founded from the estate of the actor O. E. Hasse to promote young actors of straight and music theatre. The Foundation, maintained by the Academy, has awarded the O. E. Hasse Prize since 1981.
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Film and Media Art Section Prizes and Foundations

Konrad Wolf Prize

Named after the film director and long-standing President of the East German Akademie der Künste, the prize is awarded for outstanding artistic achievement in the fields of the performing arts as well as film and media art.
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Schlubach Hirschmeier Scholarship

This scholarship, donated by the Berlin stage designer and film production designer Jan Schlubach (1920 - 2006), has been awarded by the Akademie der Künste since 1997 to talented young film set designers. The period and amount of the scholarship is determined according to work project on an individual basis. The selection is made by Academy members of the Film and Media Section, who then act as mentors.
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The Akademie der Künste Radio Play Prize was awarded for the last time in 2007. The Independent Audio Drama Prize under the PLOPP!-AWARD competition for independently produced and previously unbroadcast audio scripts. It was awarded for the last time in 2008.

Ellen Auerbach Scholarship for Photography

The development scholarship for young international photographers is financed by the estate of the photographer Ellen Auerbach and is awarded every two years.
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