September, 2005 - Nr. 9
Amos Oz receives Goethe Prize
TWIG - Israeli author Amos Oz accepted the 2005 Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt at a ceremony in St. Paul’s Church that honoured his work both as a man of letters and as an unflinching humanitarian.
In a laudation by journalist Felicitas von Lovenberg, Oz was praised for being an "unfettered humorist" who used language, literature and fantasy to fight against the dangers of violence and fanaticism.
"Amos Oz knows how to create for his readers a deep sense of humanity and moral values, a sense of all of us belonging together, beyond all borders," the Goethe Prize jury said in a statement.
Oz is a founding member of the Israeli peace movement "Schalom achschaw," or "Peace Now." For his humanitarian work, he also received the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers’ Trade Organization in 1992.
As a writer Oz is best known for his novels, short stories and poems, many of which deal with Israel’s relationship to Palestine and to Germany. His books are frequent bestsellers in Germany.
The jury praised especially his most recent book to reach Germany in translation, "A Tale of Love and Darkness," an autobiographical work that also tells the history of the state of Israel.
The Goethe Prize, worth 50,000 Eur ($60,000) has been
awarded since 1927 by the City of Frankfurt to writers whose breadth of work
and level of artistry most reflect the ideals set by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, Germany’s most important classical writer.
