The Rheingau Literature Prize 2026, endowed with 111 bottles of wine and 11,111 euros, goes to Lukas Rietzschel for his novel "Sanditz". The award will be presented at this year's Rheingau Literature Festival on September 27 at Schloss Johannisberg.
In his third novel, set in the fictional Lusatian town of Sanditz, the Saxon author sheds light on the history of the Wenzel family from the 1970s through to the coronavirus pandemic and the start of the war in Ukraine. "This period includes the social upheavals in the GDR that led to reunification, but also the disappointments that the inhabitants of the fictional town of Sanditz, who were ready for a new beginning, experienced afterwards and the resulting skepticism towards the achievements of the new era," the jury said in its statement.
