Historian Karl Schlögel wins German Peace Prize – DW – 07/29/2025

German historian Karl Schlögel, an expert on Russia and Ukraine, is the winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for 2025.

On Tuesday, it was announced that one of Germany’s most prestigious literary prizes, bestowed annually by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association at the Frankfurt Book Fair, would go to Schlögel for his work that has recently concentrated on the historical context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“His was one of the first voices to warn of Vladimir Putin’s aggressive expansionist policies and authoritarian-nationalist claims to power,” read the jury’s statement. “Today, Schlögel continues to affirm Ukraine’s place in Europe, calling for its defence as essential to our shared future.”

“His enduring message is both clear and urgent,” the statement continued. “Without a free Ukraine, there can be no peace in Europe.”

Safeguarding Ukrainian culture in Lviv

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A lifetime understanding European history and conflict

Born in 1948 into a farming family in Bavaria, southern Germany, Karl Schlögel’s fascination for eastern Europe began when he traveled to the Soviet Union in 1966. Two years later he experienced the Prague Spring, wherein Soviet tanks brutally suppressed an uprising in the Czechoslovakian capital.

By 1969, Schlögel was studying philosophy and East European History at the Free University of Berlin and went on to specialize in Stalinist Russia.

The up and coming historian became an active member of the student movement and joined the Maoist Communist Party of Germany for a time before receiving his doctorate based on a study of conflicts in Soviet Union labor organizations.

He continued to write extensively on Russian and eastern European history and culture in essays and history books for several decades. His writings soon included criticism of Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin.

“The only things that President Vladimir Putin has learned from the failings of the Russian Empire seem to be fear of change and a willingness to maintain order at any price,” Schlögel wrote in an op-ed for DW in 2017, the 100th anniversary of the Russian revolution.

When Putin’s regime illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, the professor visited the country and refocused his research on Ukraine and cities like Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv and Kharkiv.

‘A surprising and great honor’

In works such as “Terror and Dream” (2008) and “The Soviet Century” (2017), which revives the everyday life of a “lost world” behind the Iron Curtain, Schlögel has “set standards for vivid, lively historiography,” said Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Chairwoman of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.

Karl Schlögel has written numerous books on eastern European historyImage: DW

“With his narrative style, which combines observation, feeling, and understanding, he corrects prejudices and arouses curiosity,” said Schmidt-Friderichs.

The Peace Prize is “a surprising and great honor,” said Schlögel after his win was announced. He added the award also recognizes the importance of eastern European history that centers his work. He also spoke of the need for Germany to defend Ukraine.

“Russia is the enemy,” he said in an interview with the German Press Agency (dpa). “Russia is a state that has started a war in Europe, and Germans must prepare themselves for that.”

Previous winner also warned against Putin’s aggression

Last year, the US historian Anne Applebaum won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade based on her support for Ukraine in the face of hostile Russian aggression.

“To prevent Russia from spreading its autocratic political system, we must help Ukraine to victory,” said the Polish-American historian in 2024 in her acceptance speech at St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt.

“At a time when democratic values and achievements are increasingly being caricatured and attacked, her work embodies an eminent and indispensable contribution to the preservation of democracy and peace,” the award citation said of Applebaum.

Karl Schlögel is the latest recipient of a prize that began in 1950 when the German Publishers and Booksellers Association first awarded the Peace Prize — now with prize money of €25,000 ($28,820) — to demonstrate its “commitment to serving international understanding between nations and cultures.”

The Peace Prize is presented annually at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair and will be awarded this year on October 19.

Edited by: Renee Sant