Lie in rejection email? Further dispute over bookstore prize

Standardized rejection "for reasons of secrecy"

A spokeswoman for Weimer, however, pointed out that a "standardized rejection" had been sent. "The email was sent to all bookshops that were not to receive the award," she told the German Press Agency. "For reasons of confidentiality, there was no other way of dealing with the three special cases in question. In this respect, we refer to the Federal Ministry of the Interior."

Weimer's decision to exclude three left-wing bookshops as award winners has been the subject of debate for days. Weimer (non-party) argued that the prize, which is financed with taxpayers' money, should not go to "enemies of the state", as he had said in the Bundestag's Culture Committee. Lawyers for the bookshops said they had filed a complaint with the administrative courts in Berlin and Cologne.

The German Bookshop Prize is awarded to more than 100 bookshops in Germany. At the beginning of the week, the independent jury distanced itself from the decision to exclude three bookshops. The subsequent decision was made by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and "was beyond our control", according to the statement.