Leipzig, 9 November, 2012. The Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig and the Institute of Communication and Media Studies of Leipzig University have awarded the "Promotion Prize of Bibliology" to Karolin Schmal. The prize has a purse of 2,500 Euros.
The Leipzig book scientist was awarded for her master thesis "Publishing in hard times. Philipp Reclam jun. Publishing House during National Socialism". The thesis was developed at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies and supervised by Professor Siegfried Lokatis.
From the jury's decision:
"The Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig awards an impressive and in its design of research exemplary study about the history of publishers in the 'Third Reich'. Based on scattered and very complicated sources, the author managed to portrait corporate activities during politically turbulent times.
The highly ambivalent attitudes of these entrepreneurs are not judged sweepingly, but explained within the creation context and made visible in the coordinate system of anticipatory obedience, calculated and forced adaption and occasional 'resistance'. Particular attention is directed on the entanglements of economic interests and political and ideological interference into the publishing programme of a renowned publishing house. The interdisciplinary and linguistically confidently executed study provides new approaches for discussions on National Socialism. It should be received beyond the narrow circle of book and media sciences."
The prize is awarded in memory of Professor Dietrich Kerlen who significantly contributed to the building up and the making of mark of bibliology in Leipzig between 1995 and 2004. The award ceremony takes place during the graduation ceremony of Institute of Communication and Media Studies on 25 January, 2013.
The "Promotion Prize of Bilbiology" is directed at graduates from universities and technical colleges of higher education, as well as scientists from the German language area, who have dealt with problems concerning bibliology in their final or qualification assignments (degree thesis, B.A. or M.A. exams; though no dissertations!). The assignments must be unpublished. In the broadest sense, bibliology comprises the materiality and the essence of books, as well as social, economic, cultural, judicial and institutional conditions of the manufacturing, distribution and adoption of books in past and present. A jury decides about the conferment of the prize. The decision is final.