The German historian Carl Shlogel, a specialist from Russia and Ukraine, is the winner of the German Book Trade Award for 2025.
On Tuesday, it was announced that one of Germany’s most prestigious literary prices, the German publisher and Booksellers Association, is given annually for its work from Frankfurt Book Fair, Wood to Shlogel, which recently focused on the historic context of Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
Read in the jury’s statement, “Today, Schlögel continues to confirm the location of Ukraine in Europe, required for our shared future to defense.”
“His permanent message is both clear and necessary,” the statement continued. “Without a free Ukraine, there can be no peace in Europe.”
Understanding European history and struggle throughout a lifetime
Born in an agricultural family in Bavaria, Southern Germany in 1948, Karl Shlogel’s attraction for Eastern Europe began when he visited the Soviet Union in 1966. Two years later, he experienced Prague spring, cruelly suppressed in the Szeskoslovian capital on the Soviet tank.
By 1969, Schlögel was studying philosophy and Eastern European history at Berlin’s Open University and specialized in Stalinist Russia.
UP and the upcoming historians became an active member of the student movement and joined the Maoist Communist Party of Germany. A study of conflicts in Soviet Union Labor Organizations,
Hey continued to write widespread on Russian and Eastern European history and culture in essays and history books for several decades. His writing soon included the criticism of Russia leader Vladimir Putin.
“Only President Vladimir Putin has learned from the failures of the Russian Empire, which is afraid of the desire to maintain an order at Annie Price,” Shlogel wrote in an op-aid for the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in an op-ed for DW in 2017.
When Putin’s rule illegally canceled Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014The professor visited the country and resumed his research at Ukraine and Kiev, Odessa, Laviv and Kharkiv.
‘A surprising and great honor’
The “Terror and Dream” (2008) and “The Soviet Century” (2017) (2017), which revives the everyday life of the “lost world” behind the iron kurtain, Schlogel has set standards for “vividography,” said “Curin Schmid-Friedchor, and the president of Bookseller said.
“With his story style, which combines observation, emotion and understanding, he fixes prejudices and enhances curiosity,” said Schmit-Friday.
Peace Prize “is” a surprising and great honor, “Schlogel said after the announcement of his victory. He added the award, so recognizes the importance of Eastern European history that focuses his work. He talked about the need for Germany to protect Ukraine.
“Russia is the enemy,” Hey said in an interview with the German press agency (DPA). “Russia is a state that has started war in Europe, and German people should prepare the subject -content for it.”
Therefore the previous winner warned against Putin’s aggression
Last year, American historian Anne Applebaum won the German book trade peace award based on his support for Ukraine in front of hostile Russian aggression.
“To prevent Russia from spreading its autocratic political system, we should help Ukraine win,” said the Polish-American historian in 2024 in his acceptance speech at St. Paul Church in Frankfurt.
The award citation said about Applebaum, “At a time when democratic values and achievements are disgusting and attacking, its work incarnates to renowned and unavoidable contribution in the protection of democracy and peace.”
Carl Schologel is the latest recipient of an award that began in 1950 when the German Publisher and Booksellers Association awarded the Peace Prize for the first time – now with a prize money of € 25,000 ($ 28.820) – to demonstrate his “international understanding and commitment to serve the cultures.
The annual peace award is presented at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair and will be honored on 19 October this year.
Edited by: Renee Saint
