The Caroline-Schlegel-Preis is a literary award of Germany, reserved for the genres of essay and feuilleton. The city of Jena first advertised it by way of a public competition in 2000, when the "Romantikerhaus" (the former residence of the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte) re-opened as a museum for literary culture. The award has been offered once in a period of three years each time, starting from 2002. There is a main award ("Hauptpreis"; €5.000) and a subsidiary award ("Förderpreis"; €2.500). The complete prize money of €7.500 has been granted by an anonymous private patron.
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Philosophy
The award is intended as a memorial to the notable German free thinker Caroline Schlegel (Caroline Schelling) (1763–1809); work deemed worthy of the award ought to have achieved a transfer of the experimental spirit of early Romanticism to the very different world of the 21st century.