György Konrád Prize for Democracy, Freedom and Human Dignity in the Danube Region.

The first award ceremony on September 17, 2021 took place at the German Embassy in Budapest at the invitation of Ambassador Johannes Haindl as part of the BUDAPEST FORUM. The first winner of the award was the independent Hungarian media portal TELEX.hu.

With the support of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klemm.

The György Konrád Prize is awarded to outstanding personalities from politics, culture and society or civil society organizations who have rendered outstanding services to democratic and civil rights development, the fight against nationalism, populism and discrimination against minorities and the strengthening of civil rights and civil society development and for the dignity of people in the European Danube region.

The György Konrád Prize sends out a democratic and civil rights signal in a European region – the Danube region – which is still in the process of developing in terms of the rule of law, liberal principles, freedom of expression, adherence to European values and commitment to human dignity.

The Hungarian writer György Konrád died in Budapest on September 13, 2019 at the age of 86. In his literary work, Konrád repeatedly dealt with National Socialism and its consequences.

Konrád, himself the son of a Jewish family, survived the Holocaust as a child and many of his relatives were murdered. He processed this experience in his novel “Glück” (Happiness). Konrád achieved international fame with his novel “The Visitor”, published in 1969, and his other important works include “Ghost Festival” (1986) and, most recently, “Guest Book – Reflections on Freedom” (2016). Konrad’s work put him in opposition to the communist regime in Hungary, and he was not allowed to publish between 1978 and 1988. Alongside Adam Michnik and Václav Havel, he was one of the best-known dissidents and civil rights activists before the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Konrád has received numerous awards and honors, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Herder Prize and the International Charlemagne Prize. From 1990 to 1993 he was president of the international PEN and from 1997 to 2003 president of the Akademie der Künste Berlin-Brandenburg.