Issued on: 01.07.2026
Press Release 75/2026
Literature as a Response to Complex Historical-Political Questions: Ludwig Harig Scholarship 2026 Awarded to Pascal Richmann
The Ludwig Harig Scholarship 2026 endowed with 10,000 euros by the Minister of Education and Culture (MBK) goes this year to Pascal Richmann for the literary project "PECH HABEN". With the scholarship, the MBK supports the work of authors in realizing their literary projects. The official award ceremony for the scholarship will take place at the beginning of November.
Minister of Education and Culture Christine Streichert-Clivot: „Good literature can build bridges – between past and present, between people and perspectives. It makes history tangible and helps us better understand the challenges of our time. Especially for young people, it opens spaces where they can ask questions, form their own opinions, and develop empathy. Pascal Richmann impressively demonstrates with his novel project how literature can narrate complex connections and touch people in the process. We need such voices – which is why I am very pleased that we can support his work with the Ludwig Harig Scholarship.“
The jury reasons the awarding of the Ludwig-Harig Scholarship 2026 to Pascal Richmann as follows:
The Ludwig Harig Scholarship 2026, endowed with 10,000 euros by the Minister for Education and Culture (MBK), is awarded this year to Pascal Richmann for the literary project "PECH HABEN." As the consequences of anthropogenic global climate change shape our present and threaten our future, the novel project emphasizes the potential of literature to transform complex historical and political issues into emotional and intellectually demanding stories. It does so with an equally analytical and poetic look, illuminating the genesis of industrial oil extraction in Alsace and narrating the beginnings of modern progress history as a story of destruction. Pascal Richmann allows his characters to look back over the past 500 years with outstanding elegance and linguistic concentration; he tells precisely and surprisingly, laconic and full of passion. Through the narrated times, he shifts perspectives, questions literary genre boundaries, and combines narrative, reportage, and anthropological perspectives. The focus is not only on telling about the past but also on making the present readable and understandable. Pascal Richmann shares with Ludwig Harig not only this aspiration to understand history in relation to the present but also the interested narrative gaze on the German-French border region."
Pascal Richmann (* 1987 in Dortmund)
Pascal Richmann studied social and cultural anthropology at the University of Heidelberg and literary writing in Hildesheim. He writes theatrical texts, essays, reports, and stories. Pascal Richmann is a member of the Academy for Lethality and Solutions. His first book was published by Hanser in 2017: about Germany, about everything. Other works include: One Misses This Planet (Spector Books, 2021). Together with Enis Maci, he published the novel "Pando" (Suhrkamp) in 2024.
Background
The Ludwig Harig Scholarship is being awarded for the eighth time by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The scholarship is endowed with 10,000 euros and is limited to two years. With this travel and research scholarship, the MBK supports the work of authors in realizing their literary projects – following the example of Ludwig Harig himself, who enjoyed traveling to be inspired on site not only by original locations but also to collect, review, and research simultaneously.
