Literature author Jonas Lüscher is awarded the Wilhelm Raabe Prize for Literature in the year 2025.
In a ceremony scheduled for Saturday, November 1st, at the Small House of the Braunschweig State Theatre, Jonas Lüscher will receive the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize for his novel "Enchanted Destiny". The prize, endowed with 30,000 euros, is sponsored by Deutschlandfunk and the city of Braunschweig, and aims to honour the literary achievements published up to the time of the award.
The city of Braunschweig and Deutschlandfunk have been the annual organizers of the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize since its inception. This year's jury, consisting of Prof. Dr. h. c. Gerd Biegel, Dr. Hanna Engelmeier, Thomas Geiger, Samuel Hamen, Prof. Dr. Anja Hesse, David Hugendick, Dr. Michael Schmitt, Prof. Dr. Julia Schöll, and Dr. Wiebke Porombka as spokesperson, selected Lüscher's work from a pool of nominees.
"Enchanted Destiny", published by Hanser Verlag in 2025, weaves the experience of the Corona pandemic with historical and philosophical foundations. The novel explores the ambivalence between technological progress and its life-threatening excesses, and questions the possibilities and conditions of art and artists.
Lüscher's language in "Enchanted Destiny" becomes a unique aesthetics of resistance, countering the possible withering of vitality within the corset of instrumental reason. The expansive, musical periods in the text create a space of freedom. The author's own experienced proximity to death is reflected in the existential ambivalence portrayed in the novel.
The festive ceremony for the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize 2025 will be broadcast live on Saturday, November 1st, at 4:30 PM, both on the radio and online by Deutschlandfunk Dokumente und Debatten. A recording of the award ceremony will be available on Deutschlandfunk on November 29th at 8:05 PM.
According to the rules of the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize, a new book by the prize winner must have been published in the current calendar year of the respective award. In keeping with this rule, "Enchanted Destiny" was published in 2025.
The Mayor of the city, Dr. Thorsten Kornblum, and the Director General of Deutschlandradio, Stefan Raue, will present the prize to Jonas Lüscher at the ceremony.
"Enchanted Destiny" is a dense, richly textured reflection on the relationship between humans and machines, offering a thought-provoking exploration of our modern world. Lüscher's novel is certain to spark conversation and introspection among readers, making it a worthy recipient of the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize.
