Ceremony October 13th 2025
04.02.2025
Starting signal for publishers
Starting now, publishers can submit titles for the German Book Prize 2025 at www.deutscher-buchpreis.de/anmeldung. Until 19 March 2025, they may each submit two German-language novels – and recommend up to five additional titles – from their current or forthcoming lists. To participate, applicants must be members of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association), or its Swiss or Austrian equivalents: the Schweizer Buchhandel- und Verlags-Verband and the Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels. The books must be published between 1 October 2024 and 16 September 2025, when the shortlist will be announced. Books, reading copies, e-books or galley proofs may be submitted until 13 June 2025.
The novel of the year is selected through a multi-stage process. First, the jury reviews all the novels submitted by publishers and compiles a longlist of 20 titles, which will be announced on 19 August 2025. From this list, the jury members select six titles for the shortlist, which will be released on 16 September 2025. These six authors will only find out who among them has won the German Book Prize on the evening of the award ceremony itself.
The prize will be awarded in the Kaisersaal of the Frankfurt Römer on 13 October 2025, to coincide with the start of the Frankfurter Buchmesse. The winner will receive 25,000 euros in prize money; the five finalists 2,500 euros each. Martina Hefter won the German Book Prize 2024 for her novel “Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir?”
The German Book Prize is awarded by the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association). The main sponsor of the prize is the Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation), and Frankfurter Buchmesse and the city of Frankfurt am Main are also partners.
For more information on the German Book Prize or this year's jury, please follow the links.