The 2008 Übersetzerpreis der – Translator Prize of the Foundation for Art and Culture NRW – will be awarded to the translator Gerhardt Csejka from Frankfurt am Main. Gerhardt Csejka will receive the award for his translation of Mircea Cărtărescu's work Die Wissenden (Vienna: Zsolnay Verlag, 2007) from Romanian into German. At the same time, the award honours the translator's complete works. 

The  – Foundation for Art and Culture NRW – awards the renowned prize, which is with € 25 000 one of the most highly endowed literary prizes in the German-speaking region, in cooperation with the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium Straelen:

Fritz Schaumann, President of the Kunststiftung NRW – Foundation for Art and Culture NRW – awarded the prize at the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium on 5 June 2008.

Jury Statement

Csejka describes the upheavals in Romania's history in the twentieth century and provides an insight into the rigid totalitarian systems, which alternate between reality and paranoia.

As translator, Csejka realises what Cărtărescu demands of the angel: He is "the mediator who veiled in faith begins with the mind and moves matter, shapes and controls it."

The jury included: Gertraude Krueger, Denis Scheck, Hubert Spiegel, Peter Urban-Halle and Giovanna Waeckerlin-Induni. 

Further information

In cooperation with the EUK Straelen the