Overview
- Lena Schätte was awarded the Ingeborg‑Bachmann‑Preis at the festival’s finale, which the jury announced on Sunday, June 28, and the main prize carries a €30,000 award.
- Schätte’s winning text, titled “Was wir tragen,” portrays the friendship of two overweight schoolgirls and won praise from juror Thomas Strässle for its “existenzielle Wucht.”
- The author also received the BKS Bank Publikumspreis, while Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç won the Deutschlandfunk‑Preis, Kinga Tóth took the Kelag‑Preis and Magdalena Schrefel received the 3sat‑Prize.
- Coverage of the three‑day event emphasized live readings and jury debate shaping outcomes and noted pre‑festival attention on Keskinkılıç for his praised language and performance.
- The 2026 edition marked the festival’s 50th run and coincided with Ingeborg Bachmann’s 100th birthday, a pairing that critics say spotlighted contemporary trends toward autofiction and writing about marginalised, bodily and classed experience.