The Hanns Eisler Prize was an East-German music award, named after the composer Hanns Eisler. It was awarded by Radio DDR – with advisory participation of the music section of the Akademie der Künste der DDR in Berlin (East) and the (VDK) – and on the occasion of his 70th birthday on 6 July 1968, the first time in the ballroom of the . The Hanns Eisler Prize was endowed with 10,000 marks and was one of the most renowned music prizes in the German Democratic Republic.
Statute
The statutes stated: "The Hanns Eisler Prize shall be awarded for new compositions and musicological works which make outstanding contributions to the socialist musical culture of the GDR". Thus, one or more composers (in the category "composition") and musicology were honoured (from 1971 in the category "scientific papers"). The prize-winning pieces were then premiered in a special concert.
Among the first prize winners in 1968 were Peter Dorn, Gerhard Rosenfeld and Ruth Zechlin. The composers Reinhard Pfundt, Gerhard Rosenfeld and Udo Zimmermann each received two awards. In 1990 and 1991, the prize was awarded by the Deutschlandsender Kultur, most recently to Klaus Martin Kopitz and Hans Tutschku. Since 1993, the has been awarded by the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" to young performers and composers.
Laureates (1968–1991) Distinguished by Radio DDR 2: 1968: Peter Dorn, Gerhard Rosenfeld and Ruth Zechlin 1969: Siegfried Matthus and Wolfgang Strauß 1970: Gerhard Rosenfeld 1971: Jürgen Elsner and Inge Lammel 1972: Gerhard Tittel, Peter Wicke und Udo Zimmermann 1973: Friedrich Goldmann, Rainer Kunad, Hans-Joachim Schulze and Udo Zimmermann 1974: keine Verleihung 1975: Frank-Volker Eichhorn, Winfried Höntsch and Friedrich Schenker 1976: Willy Focke 1977: Manfred Schubert and Manfred Weiss 1978: Paul-Heinz Dittrich and Thomas Böttger (recognition: Joachim Gruner and Bert Poulheim) 1979: Manfred Grabs, Peter Herrmann, Bert Poulheim and Gisela Steineckert 1980: Wilfried Krätzschmar, Günter Neubert and H. Johannes Wallmann 1981: Thomas Ehricht, Bernd Franke and Heinz Weitzendorf 1982: Gerd Domhardt and Thomas Hertel 1983: Rainer Böhm, Reiner Dennewitz and Hans-Peter Jannoch 1984: Ralf Hoyer, Burkhard Meier, Reinhard Pfundt and Kurt Dietmar Richter 1985: Günter Mayer (recognition: Reinhard Wolschina and Helmut Zapf) 1986: Gottfried Glöckner, Fritz Hennenberg and Reinhard Pfundt 1987: Walter Thomas Heyn and Helmut Zapf 1988: Reinhard Wolschina and Olav Kröger (recognition: Siegfried Witzmann) 1989: Johannes Schlecht, Steffen Schleiermacher and Frank Schneider (recognition: Lutz Glandien and Hartmut Wallborn)
Awarded by Deutschlandsender Kultur: 1990: Christian Münch, Helmut Oehring and Annette Schlünz 1991: Klaus Martin Kopitz, David Citron and Hans Tutschku
Further reading
Erika Tschernig (ed.): Unsere Kultur. DDR-Zeittafel 1945–1987. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1989, .