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 the 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.
2011: Claire Denis
2010: Thomas Langhoff
2008: Helmut Lachenmann
2007: Architects office SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) in Tokio
2006: George Brecht
2005: Aki Kaurismäki
2004: Hochschule für Schauspielkunst „Ernst Busch“ Berlin
2002: Aribert Reimann
2001: Hermann Czech
2000: Anna and Bernhard Blume
1999: Kira Georgijewna Muratowa
1998: Horst Sagert
1996: Pierre Boulez
1995: Renzo Piano
1994: Dieter Roth
1993: Otar Iosseliani
1992: Peter Zadek
1990: Luigi Nono
1989: Norman Foster
1988: Rupprecht Geiger
1987: Lina Wertmüller
1986: Marianne Hoppe
1984: Olivier Messiaen
1983: Rolf Gutbrod
1982: Meret Oppenheim
1981: George Tabori
1980: Peter Stein (returned)
1977: Joachim Schmettau
1976: Wilhelm Borchert
1975: Josef Tal
1974: Gottfried Böhm
1973: Bernhard Minetti
1972: György Ligeti (Musik)
1971: Rainer Küchenmeister
Recipients are typically listed in the sequence "Bildende Kunst" (art), "Baukunst" (architecture), "Musik" (music), "Darstellende Kunst" (performing art), "Film-Hörfunk-Fernsehen" (media)
1969: Heinrich Richter, Ludwig Leo, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Herbert Ihering, Peter Zadek
1968: Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Erwin Gutkind, Heinz Friedrich Hartig, Hans Lietzau, Georg Stefan Troller
1967: Rudolf Hoflehner, Frei Otto, Karl Böhm, Gustav Rudolf Sellner, Hans Richter
1966: Hann Trier, Walter Rossow, Johann Nepomuk David, Rudolf Platte, Dieter Ertel
1965: Jan Bontjes van Beek, Hermann Fehling, Elisabeth Grümmer, Ernst Deutsch
1964: Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Werner Düttmann, Hans Chemin-Petit, Rolf Henniger, Wolfgang Neuss
1963: Max Kaus, Sergius Ruegenberg, Paul Hindemith, Fritz Kortner, Jürgen Neven-du Mont
1962: Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann, Egon Eiermann, Gerhart von Westerman, Gert Reinholm, Hans Rolf Strobel and Heinz Tichawsky
1961: Rudolf Belling, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Willi Schmidt, Robert Müller
1960: Julius Bissier, Paul Baumgarten, Wladimir Vogel, Erich Schellow, Günter Neumann, Heinz Pauck
1959: Elsa Wagner
1958: Fritz Winter, Wassili Luckhardt, Hans Werner Henze, Martin Held, Robert Siodmak
1957: Erich Heckel, Ludwig Hilberseimer, Heinz Tiessen, Joana Maria Gorvin, Heinz Rühmann
1956: Heinz Trökes, Hugo Häring, Philipp Jarnach, Ernst Schröder, Helmut Käutner
1955: Gerhard Marcks, Hans Purrmann, Manfred Bluth, August Wilhelm Dressler, Max Taut, Hans Scharoun, Sergiu Celibidache, Joseph Ahrens, Josef Greindl, Walter Franck
1954: Paul Dierkes, Ursula Förster, Otto Placzek, Max Pechstein, Curt Lahs, Hans Thiemann, Hans Orlowski, Sigmund Hahn (art), Erna Berger, Hertha Klust, Volker Wangenheim (music); Tatjana Gsovsky, Käthe Braun, Caspar Neher (performing art)
1953: Alexander Gonda, Emy Roeder, Johannes Schiffner, Karl Hofer, Otto Hofmann, Ernst Böhm, Dietmar Lemke, Elsa Eisgruber (art); Gerda Lammers, Karl Forster, Max Baumann (music); Käthe Dorsch, lta Maximowna, Wolfgang Spier (performing art)
1952: Richard Scheibe, Lidy von Lüttwitz, Gerhart Schreiter, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Woty Werner, Eva Schwimmer, Gerda Rotermund, Georg Gresko (art), Arthur Rother, Helmut Krebs, Giselher Klebe (music), Mary Wigman, Frank Lothar, Kurt Meisel (performing art)
1951: Louise Stomps, Mac Leube, Hans-Joachim Ihle, Theodor Werner, Alexander Camaro, Marcus Behmer, Siegmund Lympasik (art), Boris Blacher, Gerhard Puchelt (music), Hermine Körner, O. E. Hasse (performing art)
1950: Bernhard Heiliger, Karl Hartung, Hans Uhlmann, Werner Heldt, Hans Jaenisch, Wolf Hoffmann, Wilhelm Deffke, Mac Zimmermann, Carl-Heinz Kliemann (art), Werner Egk, Helmut Roloff, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (music), Heinz Tietjen, Boleslaw Barlog (performing art)
1948: Renée Sintenis, Ernst Pepping, Wolfgang Fortner
