The Günter Eich Prize 2011 goes to the radio play author Hubert Wiedfeld, who lives in Hamburg. "Over more than four decades the material and form ideas developed by Hubert Wiedfeld have positively influenced and developed the German-language radio play", the jury justified the choice of the author and writer, who was born in Braunschweig in 1937.
Wiedfeld began producing radio plays in 1969. Before that, he completed an apprenticeship as a bank clerk and worked in a juvenile detention centre as well as in a nursing home. His more than 30 published plays are based on his literary experiences. Today Wiedfeld is regarded as one of the most important radio play authors in the country. The jury judged: "His radio plays reflect contemporary German history - both large and small - in a way that is rarely seen in a radio play author". Wiedfeld's crime, dialect and social fiction games have been awarded the "Prix Italia". The jury included the radio play critic Eva Maria Lenz, the Leipzig journalist Linde Rotta, the editor-in-chief of the "Thüringer Allgemeine" Paul-Josef-Raue and the former head of the literature and radio play department at the Austrian Radio Konrad Zobel. The jury was chaired by Christoph Buggert, radio play director of Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcasting Company) until 2002.
The jury's statement: "Hubert Wiedfeld, born in Braunschweig in 1937, combined his life's work with the medium of radio in an impressive exclusivity. For more than four decades, the materials and form ideas he has developed have positively influenced and developed the German-language radio play. At the beginning there are the socially critical tones of the 1960s and 1970s, which Wiedfeld grounded through the introduction of self-experienced realities. The subsequent creative phase was characterized by a constant expansion of literary means of expression. In addition to excursions into the narrative patterns of detective history and science fiction, there are playful experiments with surrealist imagery. The great audio works of the last decade show the tools developed so far to their best advantage. Complex as well as poetically intensive attempts at an acoustic interpretation of the world emerge, which not least challenge the technical possibilities of the medium radio to the limit. Wiedfeld's radio plays reflect German contemporary history - in great detail as well as in detail - as is rarely the case with a radio play author. The Günter Eich Prize, awarded by the Sparkasse Leipzig Media Foundation, focuses on two areas. It is an author's prize and is awarded for a lifetime's work. In both respects, the decision for Hubert Wiedfeld seems downright compelling, it was made with a large majority. The author was proposed by Westdeutscher Rundfunk. The jury expressly points out that the same proposal in previous calls also came from Hessischer Rundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk. This year's prizewinner was already shortlisted for the previous competitions".
Hubert Wiedfeld died on 2 June 2013.