History
The National Prize was awarded on 7 October, "Republic Day" every year since 1949. It was given for "outstanding creative work in the fields of science and technology, important mathematical and scientific discoveries and technological inventions, the introduction of new working and production methods" and "outstanding works and achievements in the areas of art and literature." This coveted award could be given to East German citizens, groups, and even foreigners provided they made crucial contributions to socialist culture and science.
The National Prize was awarded in three classes, with corresponding monetary awards for each class. First class was 100,000 marks, second class was 50,000 marks and third class was 25,000 marks
The medal is round, gold-plated, 26mm in diameter with a portrait of Goethe circled by the words "German Democratic Republic" (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik) on the obverse side. On the reverse are the words "National Award" (German: National-preis) circled by a pair of laurel wreaths. The ribbon bar consisted of the vertical bars consisting of the national colors of black, red and gold with a gold medal GDR state symbol attached to the center of the ribbon. The medal was worn on the upper right side of the chest.
Read more about this topic: National Prize Of East Germany
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)