The Berliner Kunstpreis (Berlin Art Prize), officially Großer Berliner Kunstpreis, is a prize for the arts by the City of Berlin. It was first awarded in 1948 in several fields of art. Since 1971, it has been awarded by the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) on behalf of the Senate of Berlin. Annually one of its six sections, fine arts, architecture, music, literature, performing arts and film and media arts, gives the great prize, endowed with €15,000, whereas the other five sections annually award prizes endowed with €5,000.
The Berlin Art Prize has been awarded since 1948 in commemoration of the March Revolution of 1848. The official name then, Berliner Kunstpreis – Jubiläumsstiftung 1848/1948 (Berlin Art Prize – 1848/1948 Jubilee Foundation), was used until 1969, the ceremony was held by the Mayor in the Charlottenburg Palace.
The prize was planned to be awarded first on 18 March 1948 by the City Berlinale, to commemorate the March Revolution and the revolutionaries who fell for a new state (für einen neuen Staat gefallenen Revolutionäre). The first prize winners of 1948, shortly before the currency reform, who received awards of 10,000 Mark, were the sculptor Renée Sintenis and the composers Ernst Pepping and Wolfgang Fortner. The then-Senator of Education awarded the prize without consulting a jury.
In 1949 a constitution was drafted. The prize (per section DM 3,000.00) should be awarded annually for achievements in literature, music, painting, graphic and performing arts. As a result, changes were made regarding the divisions, the division between several winners and the award criteria. From the mid-1950s, the ceremony was always accompanied by criticism.
Since 1971, the prize is awarded by the Academy of Arts. The Academy awards the prize annually in alternating intervals of its six sections in the order of fine arts, architecture, music, literature, performing arts and film and media arts. The Arts Award for "Film and Media Arts" award since 1984 and from 1956 to 1983, there were instead the Arts Award for "Radio-Television-Film." The prize, awarded every six years by the literature section was named in 2010 the Fontane Prize.
Recipients are typically listed in the sequence "Bildende Kunst" (art), "Baukunst" (architecture), "Musik" (music), "Darstellende Kunst" (performing art), "Film-Hörfunk-Fernsehen" (media)
| Year | Fine arts | Architecture | Music | Literature (Fontane Prize) | Performing Arts | Film – radio – television / Film and media art (from 1983) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Rainer Küchenmeister | Fred Forbat | |||||
| 1972 | György Ligeti | Hans-Heinrich Reuter | |||||
| 1973 | Bernhard Minetti | Internationales Forum des Jungen Films Ulrich Gregor, Klaus Wiese, Christian Ziewer; ARD-Filmstudio: Franz Everschor, Klaus Lackschéwitz, Heinz Ungureit | |||||
| 1974 | Gottfried Böhm | ||||||
| 1975 | Josef Tal | Hubert Fichte | |||||
| 1976 | Wilhelm Borchert | Ernst Jacobi, Peter Watkins | |||||
| 1977 | Joachim Schmettau | Julius Posener | |||||
| 1979 | |||||||
| 1980 | Peter Stein, refused | ||||||
| 1981 | George Tabori | ||||||
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| 1987 | Lina Wertmüller | ||||||
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| 1993 | Otar Iosseliani | ||||||
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| 1999 | Kira Muratowa | ||||||
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| 2005 | Aki Kaurismäki | ||||||
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| 2010 |
| Year | Fine arts | Architecture | Music | Literature | Performing Arts | Film and media art | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Philip Loersch | BeL Sozietät für Architektur = Anne-Julchen Bernhardt & Jörg Leeser | Alan Hilario | Nora Bossong | Moritz Grove | Maria Speth | |
| 2012 | Abbas Akhavan | Tatiana Bilbao | Christoph Ogiermann | Monika Rinck | Manuel Pelmus, Kristof Van Boven | Astrid Schult, Sebastian Bäumler | |
| 2013 | Birgit Dieker | SelgasCano = José Selgas, Lucía Cano | Simon Steen-Andersen | Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker | Ulrich Rasche | Ali Samadi Ahadi, Nadim Mishlawi | |
| 2014 | Kader Attia | Group "Miasto Moje A w Nim" | Sergej Newski | Stephan Thome | Bettina Bartz | Maren Ade | |
| 2015 | Marta Popivoda | Achim Menges | Marena Whitcher, Rafael Nassif | Thomas Melle | Kollektiv laborgras: Renate Graziadei, Arthur Stäldi | Andrey Zvyagintsev | |
| 2016 | Sven Johne | Office KGDVS = Kersten Geers, David van Severen | Stefan Prins | Angelika Meier | Anna Prohaska | Peter Avar | |
| 2017 | Axel Anklam | Francisco Mangado | Elena Mendoza | Annett Gröschner | Valery Tscheplanowa | Athina Rachel Tsangari | |
| 2018 | Dominik Lejman | Philippe Block | Anna Korsun | Daniela Danz | Simon Stone | Christoph Brech | |
| 2019 | Prinz & Gholam | Dorte Mandrup | Zeynep Gedizlioğlu | Uljana Wolf | Alexander Scheer | Nicolette Krebitz | |
| 2020 | David Schutter | Architekturmagazin ARCH+ | Christian Winther Christensen | Norbert Zähringer | Sasha Marianna Salzmann | Christine A. Maier | |
| 2021 | Sajan Mani | Architekturbüro HARQUITECTES | Petra Strahovnik | Lea Schneider | Gina Haller | Susann Maria Hempel | |
| 2022 | Stephanie Gudra | atelier le balto | Øyvind Torvund | Roman Ehrlich | Bastian Reiber | Bettina Blümner | |
| 2023 | Petrit Halilaj | Xu Tiantian | Joanna Bailie | Barbi Marković | Marcel Kohler | Nelly Quettier |