Status: 07.11.2021 20:42
On November 7, the NDR honored the best non-fiction book written in German and dedicated to future-related issues. Three books were shortlisted.
The historian Annette Kehnel has been awarded the NDR non-fiction book prize for her book “We could also do it differently – A short history of sustainability”. Besides Kehnel, Stefan Weidner with “Ground Zero – 9/11 and the Birth of the Present” and Markus Rex with “Frozen at the North Pole – The Logbook from the Polarstern” were also on the shortlist. “Our shortlist highlights three particularly important issues of our time: sustainability, climate change and the consequences of Ground Zero,” said Katja Marx, Chairwoman of the NDR Non-Fiction Prize Jury and NDR Program Director Radio. “All three non-fiction books are looking for answers to the question: Which insights can lead us to a future worth living? They are highly relevant in terms of content and written as exciting as a novel.”
additional Information
“Frozen at the North Pole” by Markus Rex
The logbook from the Polarstern tells the story of one of the greatest research adventures of our time and at the same time offers a vivid look at the dramatic consequences of climate change. Rex gives an exciting and vivid account of everyday life on the expedition to the Arctic and describes the unimaginable challenges that his team – always guided by the goal of shedding light on the processes of global climate change – masters. Because that is where the climate of the future is created. “Frozen at the North Pole” is a rousing, exciting, but above all instructive book about scientific work, climate change and its consequences – told without pointing fingers, but all the more urgently.
VIDEO: Markus Rex: “Frozen at the North Pole” (1 min)
“We could do it differently” by Annette Kehnel
Sharing, swapping, recycling: history that makes you want to change. The current challenges – limited resources, the end of the consumer society, growing inequality – are pressing. The longing for alternatives is great, but we find it difficult to find new ways. We would only have to go further back in history to discover inspiration for our future. In “We could also do it differently”, Annette Kehnel searches for traces of the pre-modern era and vividly describes forms of living and economics of sustainability. A well-founded look back – combined with the firm resolution to learn for the future.
VIDEO: Annette Kehnel: “We could do it differently” (1 min)
Ground Zero by Stefan Weidner
The present begins on September 11, 2001. The world we live in today has its origins at ground zero: the end of the USA as the sole world power, Guantanamo and the confrontation between the West and the Islamic world, the flight from wars in the Middle East, the rise of populism and nationalism, it all starts here. So has Bin Laden won and disenchanted the West’s certainties? Isn’t it time to rethink the world? Where does the West stand after the Afghanistan debacle? Much has been written about the before and after of 9/11. There are new aha moments in “Ground Zero” as the author comes to painful conclusions.
VIDEO: Stefan Weidner: “Ground Zero” (1 min)
additional Information
