Best non-fiction books 2024: Which works are nominated for the German non-fiction prize

2024-04-23 13:21:23

Literature analysis instead of activism

Kant, Nefertiti, garbage – the candidates for the German non-fiction prize

As of: 3:21 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes

Source: Siedler Verlag, CHBeck (3), Ullstein Verlag (2), Goldmann Verlag, Suhrkamp; Montage: Infographic WORLD

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If you are too often disappointed by novels, you should turn to non-fiction books. The books nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize 2024 shed light on historical and political rather than contemporary topics. One book in particular deserved the prize.

Do you know him? In autumn, at the most important book fair in the world, the book trade pompously announces the novel of the year and the following spring the reader realizes that unfortunately he still hasn’t finished reading the novel from the previous year. And because the summer holidays are approaching and contemporary literature is generally overrated, the reader finds himself wondering whether he would rather travel with a classic – or a good non-fiction book?

In a calendar sense, the German Non-Fiction Prize does everything right. It will be awarded on June 11th at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Now there are eight nominees announced, all worthy candidates. With Kant and Nefertiti, two big names of international cultural heritage associated with Germany appear: both figures have an anniversary this year (the inventor of the Enlightenment was born 300 years ago in Königsberg, the ancient Egyptian bust has been shown in Berlin for 100 years).

Commemorations don’t produce the worst non-fiction books because they are often written thoroughly and well in advance. Marcus Willaschek’s Kant monograph was published in autumn 2023, and Sebastian Conrad’s monograph on Nefertiti’s world career definitely tops Stefanie Gerhold’s Nefertiti novel.

The most interesting non-fiction book – especially in the year with the three East German state elections – is undoubtedly Christina Morina’s study on the different understanding of democracy in West and East Germany – with consequences for expectations towards politics to this day, because the GDR has propagandistically presented itself as a democracy. The book entitled “A thousand departures” (Settlers) was reviewed in WELT by Wolf Lepenies.

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Democracy in Germany

Two other non-fiction books on the list are also politically relevant: On the one hand, Frauke Rostalski’s clever reflections on vulnerable society (“The new vulnerability as a challenge to freedom”, CH Beck) were created under the impression of the Corona measures that took place this spring are processed by various non-fiction books – Peter Strohschneider’s “Authoritarian Scientism” should be mentioned.

On the other hand, the work “Never Peace?” (Propylaeum) by Moshe Zimmermann is dedicated to the Middle East conflict, which is passed on from generation to generation without a two-state solution even being in sight, for which the professor emeritus of modern history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem pleads.

As an intervention non-fiction book on contemporary history, you can read the statements of the journalist (and trained historian) Ruth Hoffmann on the Stauffenberg assassination attempt: “The German Alibi. How July 20, 1944 is romanticized and politically exploited.” The fact that such a work is published by Goldmann-Verlag (and not by CH Beck or Siedler) shows that institutional history is not conveyed here, but rather is reflected from the outside.

The ideal medium for underexposed topics

Last but not least, non-fiction books are also the ideal medium for repressed topics that otherwise hardly take place. In civilizational stories such as Roman Köster’s “Müll. A Dirty History of Humanity” (CH Beck) shows every good non-fiction book what it is not – a television report that overwhelms you so clumsily with its sheer images that there is no longer any room to think.

In general, there is almost no activist reading material in this list of nominees, which juries that want to exhibit zeitgeist can certainly be inclined to. Only Jens Beckert (“Sold Future. Why the fight against climate change threatens to fail”) deals with an interventionist social topic, but is nevertheless based more on analysis than activism. Two works in the selection, namely those by Becker and Morina, had already been nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize (non-fiction section). The fact that they appear here again speaks for their quality.

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By the way, the German Non-Fiction Prize has only been around for three years, and the works that have been awarded so far have all been solid, classic non-fiction books. 2021 – an easy-to-read Hegel biography by “FAZ” editor Jürgen Kaube; 2022 – Stephan Malinowski’s study about “The Hohenzollern and the Nazis” and in 2023 the highlight of all – Ewald Frie’s family story about the quiet farewell to farming life: “A farm and eleven siblings”. The book has been in the top 20 of the “Spiegel” bestseller list for 61 weeks now and has not only struck a chord with a large readership – especially in times of farmers’ protests and increasing alienation from rural life. But it also proves that the relevance created by the German Non-Fiction Prize can broaden and extend sales success.

The idea of ​​awarding the non-fiction prize in places with oomph and glamor (in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie) also helps to raise public awareness of non-fiction books, which remain a key currency for dealing with intellectual, social and political topics. Because in-depth information is something that increasingly short-winded media companies need. The memory in the media circus often doesn’t last a month, and the same pigs are often chased through the village. Books offer orientation and help you recover from the same old thing. Each nomination brings the authors 2,500 euros; whoever wins the award receives 25,000 euros. So it may be worthwhile to write a non-fiction book. To read anyway.