Berlin support programs

The Senate Department for Culture and Community offers various funding programs in the field of literature, with a particular focus on scholarships.

Project funding

What is funded? Literary projects that pursue experimental, interdisciplinary, and/or target-group-oriented approaches and formats trying to bring contemporary literature to a broader audience and providing space for third-party projects, discourses, and activities (authors, curators, comic artists, theorists, mediators).

Who can apply? Individuals, groups, GbRs, literary mediators, as well as associations and other organizations based/residing in Berlin.

How much funding is available? Max. € 25.000.

Artistic research: Scholarship

What is funded? Artistic researchers with specific research projects as well as, for instance in the context of joint events, their research network.

Who can apply? Professional artistic researchers who are pursuing a research project or are contributing to the fundamental research related to artistic research, and who wish to actively contribute to the further development of the field of artistic research. Individuals and independent groups are eligible to apply.

How much funding is available? The grants are each endowed with € 30,000 annually and are awarded in monthly installments.

Working Scholarship for German litterature 

What is funded? Funding is provided for either work projects of limited duration or for the continuation or completion of specific works. Criteria for awarding a grant are primarily quality, capacity for development and continuity.

Who can apply? Applicants must have a proven track record of publication or must have demonstrated literary aptitude in samples of their work. Writers must live and work in Berlin.

How much funding is available? Scholarships are endowed with € 24,000 and are paid out in twelve monthly installments of € 2,000 each; nine additional working scholarships are endowed with € 8,000.

Working scholarship for non-German literature

What is supported? Temporary work projects or the continuation or completion of specific work. Criteria for awarding a grant are primarily quality, capacity for development and continuity.

Who can apply? Applicants must have a proven track record of publication or must have demonstrated literary aptitude in samples of their work. Writers must live and work in Berlin.

How much funding is available? The grants are endowed with € 24,000 and are expected to be paid out in twelve monthly installments of 2,000 € each.

Comics Scholarship

What is supported? Temporary work projects or the continuation or completion of specific works. Criteria awarding a grant are primarily artistic and content-related quality as well as innovation.

Who can apply? Comic artists who work and have published in Berlin or who demonstrate artistic ability in work samples.

How much funding is available? Four- and eight-month scholarships can be awarded, subject to available budgetary funds. The scholarships are expected to be paid out in monthly installments of €2,000.

Research grants for translators

What is supported? The artistic development of professionally working translators in the field of literature in Berlin who have a proven track record of publication. The focus is on literary translations, including fiction, children's and young adult literature, comics, and poetry. Non-fiction is excluded.

Who can apply? Translators who live in Berlin and can demonstrate several years of professional activity in their field.

How much funding is available? Research grants for translators are endowed with €4,000 for 2 months or €8,000 for 4 months and are paid in monthly installments of €2,000 during the funding period.

Cultural Exchange Scholarships of the State of Berlin - Comic/Graphic Novel: Paris

What is supported? The artistic development of professional artists through a cultural exchange grant.

Who can apply? Artists who live and work in Berlin and can demonstrate their artistic ability with appropriate work samples.

Academy of Arts: Alfred Döblin Fellowship

What is sponsored? Residence scholarships at the Alfred-Döblin-Haus in Wewelsfleth (Schleswig-Holstein) for three months.

Who can apply? Writers from Berlin who have already published work or who have demonstrated literary aptitude in samples of their work.

How much funding is available? Each scholarship holder receives a residence allowance of in all probability € 2,000 per month as well as an apartment in the Alfred Döblin House. The funds for the grant are provided by the Senate Department for Culture and Community.

Author Reading Fund

What is supported? Readings with Berlin authors at public and private schools, at public libraries, and at private libraries open to the public.

Who can apply? Applications must be made directly by the schools and libraries.

How much funding is available? The fee per author is €450. Since 2019, funding has also been available for film, theater and radio play authors.

-> Berlin-Mitte
-> Berlin Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
-> Berlin Neukölln
-> Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
-> Berlin Marzahn-Hellersdorf
-> Berlin Pankow
-> Berlin Lichtenberg
-> Berlin Reinickendorf
-> Berlin Spandau
-> Berlin Steglitz-Zehlendorf
-> Berlin Tempelhof-Schöneberg
-> Berlin Treptow-Köpenick

German Literature Fund

Author Funding

What is funded? Literary projects that are otherwise not funded: Nonfiction, art books, graphic novels, biographies, and screenplays.
Who can apply? Writers.
How much is funded? A stipend of €3,000 per month for a maximum of one year.

Placement Funding

What is supported? Publication projects of contemporary German-language literature, translations of contemporary literature, nationally published literary journals, symposia, national initiatives for literary reception, and the safeguarding of important literary traditions for the present.
How much is funded? Max. € 100,000

LCB: Albrecht Lempp Fellowship

What is sponsored? A one-month stay in the respective other country, in either Krakow or at the Literary Colloquium Berlin.
Who can apply? German and Polish writers as well as German literary translators from Polish and Polish literary translators from German.

LCB: Authors' Workshop Prose

What is supported? The workshop promotes younger German-language authors.
Who can apply? Young German-language authors who have not yet published an independent book.
How much is funded? Participation is accompanied by a stipend of €1,500.

LCB: Residency for young German-language authors

What is supported? Residence scholarship of up to three months at the Literary Colloquium Berlin.
Who can apply? Younger German-language authors up to 35 years of age who do not live in Berlin and have at least one literary publication.
How much funding is available? € 1,100 per month.

EU funding programs: Creative Europe - Culture: Literary Translations

What is supported? Translations, the publication and the promotion of book packages of works of fiction.
Who can apply? Publishers or publishing houses established in one of the countries participating in the CULTURE subprogram who own a legal entity that has existed for at least two years prior to the date of the submission deadline. The applicant’s organization must be able to demonstrate publishing activity.
How much funding is available? Maximum 60% of the total eligible costs

Jürgen Ponto Foundation Literature Award

What is awarded? Young authors who are working on their first book manuscript and show a special literary talent.
Who can apply? Authors can only apply via the publishing house that will publish their first work.
What is the prize money? € 15.000 .

Franz Hessel Prize:

What is awarded? Contemporary literature with the aim of both deepening the literary dialogue between Germany and France as well as promoting contemporary authors who are not yet known in the neighboring country and, as a rule, have not yet been translated.
Who can apply? German and French-speaking authors.
What is the prize money? € 10,000 and the winners will be invited to a writer's residency at Schloss Genshagen in the following year.

Noon Foundation Literary Award, Theme: Advancement through Education

What will be awarded? German-language prose (story, novel) 
What is the prize money? € 4.000.

Alfred Döblin Prize

What will be awarded? A longer, in-progress, and unfinished prose manuscript.
Who can apply? Authors.
What is the prize money? Between €10,000-15,000.

Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair

What is awarded? Outstanding new German-language publications and translations in the categories of fiction, nonfiction/essay and translation.
Who can apply? All publishers participating in the upcoming Leipzig Book Fair as main or co-exhibitors.
What is the prize money? 15 nominees will receive € 1,000 each, the winners of the three main categories fiction, non-fiction and essay writing/translation € 15,000 each.

Additional listings of open calls for submissions in the field of literature are available here.

Prussian Maritime Trading Company Foundation (Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung)

What is supported? In the field of culture, the foundation particularly promotes literature in Berlin (events in Berlin's literary institutions, author readings, literary exhibitions); the foundation will not be awarding printing subsidies for the time being.
Who can apply? Applicants must be authorized to issue donation receipts for these purposes in accordance with the officially prescribed form (Section 50 (1) EStDV); corporations that are not domestic legal entities under public law or domestic public service organizations must provide proof of this authorization in the form of a valid notice of exemption from the relevant tax authority. Private individuals cannot be supported within the framework of this project-related funding program

Jürgen Ponto Foundation

What is supported? By awarding literary prizes, scholarship programs and placements in writing workshops, the Jürgen Ponto Foundation's commitment focuses on the beginning of a writer's career in the literary sector: the important phase before the publication of the first book.

Berthold Leibinger Foundation

What is supported? The Berthold Leibinger Foundation provides funding in the field of literature and also awards a comic book prize.
Who can apply? Individuals cannot be sponsored.

Library Andreas Züst

What is supported? Studio scholarships with a duration of up to four weeks.
Who can apply? Domestic and foreign cultural professionals (individuals or working teams of max. 4 people) of all disciplines (visual arts, literature, new media, music, stage, design, architecture, film, photography to applied arts and arts-related sciences).
How much funding is available? The stay is free of charge, travel expenses are covered. A living allowance of 250 CHF/week can be applied for. The costs for artistic production have to be paid by the participants themselves.

Friedrich Bödecker Circle

What is supported? Author encounters, readings and workshops for open children's and youth groups and school classes.

PwC Foundation

What is funded? Aesthetic cultural education projects in the performing and visual arts, music, literature and new media, as well as value-oriented economic education for children and young people. A special funding focus of the foundation are projects that aim to combine cultural and economic education.
Who can apply? Non-profit organizations and cultural and educational institutions based in Germany.

UBS Cultural Foundation

What is supported? The work of professional writers and translators whose work has achieved national significance. Particular support is given to literary positions that contribute to the understanding of the present and to the dialogue between different cultures. Support is also given to institutions and projects that make a socially relevant contribution to the dissemination, communication and discussion of literature.
Who can apply? Persons of Swiss nationality or domicile in Switzerland.

Hermann Lenz Foundation Public foundation under civil law

What is supported? Financial support for authors and literary scholars to promote their writing or academic activities through the awarding of grants and/or contributions in kind.

• Network Independent Literature Scene Berlin  (NFLB e.V.) was founded in 2013 and sees itself as a representative of the interests of approximately 10,000 Berlin authors, translators, independent literary organizers, independent publishers and other literary mediators vis-à-vis state politics and the public.
• P.E.N. - Poets, Essayists, Novelists.
• Important contacts in the field of literature at a glance.
• Actors in the field of literature on Creative City Berlin

Other consultation centers

• Literature Scene Berlin / Lettretage – Writing & Living
• Renate Comics

Related articles and links

• Video: Event recording - How do I get started? Publish a book
• GFDS - German Language Society
• German Academy for Language and Poetry
• House for Poetry
• International literature festival Berlin
• Schamrock - festival of female poets
• Magazine articles on Creative City Berlin

Federal funding programs:

Image Art - Grants in BG II

What is funded? Realization of a project, a publication or an open development project.
Who can apply? Members and associations of members of VG Bild-Kunst from the fields of photography, illustration and design.
How much funding is available? Within the  project funding stream, a maximum of € 8,000 can be awarded; with regard to funding from the special fund for publications, the amount of funding depends on the total volume of publication costs; with regard to funding for open development projects, a maximum of € 2,400 can be awarded. 

International Youth Library - Research Grants

What is funded? Research in the field of international children's and young adult literature and illustration through residencies of six weeks to four months at the International Youth Library.

“Buntspecht” - young talent award for picture book illustration in Berlin

What is awarded? The best unpublished children's book project in the German-speaking world.
Who can apply? Illustrators of children's books.
What is the prize money? € 2.000.

Comic Book Award - from Leibinger Foundation

What is awarded? Unpublished, German-language comics whose completion is foreseeable.
What is the prize money? € 20,000 for the first prize winner, further finalists will receive € 2,000 each.

Grand Prize of the German Academy for Children's and Youth Literature

What is awarded? A literary or graphic work in the field of children's and youth literature.

Hamburg Picture Book Award

What will be awarded? An unpublished contemporary book concept.
What is the prize money? € 12.000.

Serafina: Young Illustrators Award - German Academy for Children's and Youth Literature

What will be awarded? German-language illustrators of children's and youth literature.
What is the prize money? € 2.500.

KORBINIAN – Paul Maar Prize

What is the award for? Young talent award for German-language authors of children's and youth literature.
Who can apply? German-speaking authors.
What is the prize money? € 2.500 .

Max and Moritz Award - International Comic Salon Erlangen

What is awarded? Work of outstanding artists, meritorious publishing work as well as discourses surrounding  graphic literature.
What is the prize money? "Best German-language comic artist" (endowed with €7,500), "best German-language comic," "best international comic," "best German-language comic strip," "best comic for children," best German-language comic debut (endowed with €1,000) and a "special prize for an outstanding life's work.

Carl Buch Prize - Hamburger company Carl Buch

What is awarded? Children's book cover illustration.
Who can apply? Illustrators from German-speaking countries who have published at least one but no more than two children's book cover illustrations with a publishing house.
What is the prize money? € 2.000.

Pied Piper Literature Award - Stadt Hameln

What is awarded? Outstanding books of fairy tales or legends, fantastic stories or stories from the Middle Ages for children and young people.
What is the prize money? € 5,000.

Transbook: European Network for Children's Literature

Berlin funding programs

Presentations of contemporary visual arts

What is supported? Including individual catalogs of Berlin-based artists (first publication or last funded publication more than 5 years ago).
Who can apply? Artists who work and live in Berlin and who have a proven track record of their artistic work. Appropriate work samples must be submitted.
How much funding is available? Max. € 25,000.

Federal funding programs

Image Art: Promotion in BG I

Award "Catalogs for Young Artists" // Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation

What is supported? Exhibition projects and the corresponding catalogs. It should be the first major institutional exhibition of a young artist. The artists should not be older than 35 years.
Who can apply? Any public or municipal exhibition organizer in Germany can apply. Artists may not submit their own applications. Private institutions can be supported as long as they are non-profit organizations. The support of commercial institutions is excluded.
How much funding is available? Up to € 40,000.

C/O Talent Award

What is funded? Photo arts and theory grant awarded to a tandem under the age of 35.
Who can apply? Photo artists are nominated for the C/O Berlin Talent Award by a committee of international experts. Theoreticians can apply during an Open Call.
How much funding is available? Prize money for both winners is associated with a solo exhibition and an individually designed publication.

Schirner Zang Foundation - Program

What is funded? Initiation, design, and publication of art-scientific publications such as catalogs, books, documentations, catalogs of works, or audiovisual and online media, as well as supporting their fabrication through printing cost subsidies.
Who can apply? (No application possible for the award, prospective prize winners must be proposed). Support for emerging and outstanding international artists and cultural professionals, such as through the presentation of their work or scholarships based on guidelines.

van der Koelen Foundation for Art and Science

What is funded? Work at the intersection of art and science within the framework of a scholarship program.
Who can apply? Students in the humanities who wish to write a dissertation on contemporary art after 1945.
How much is being funded? € 850 monthly for a maximum funding period of three years, plus a practical program and publication with Chorus Verlag.

Art book publishers who can be contacted for publication:

• Archive Books
• Peperoni Books
• German Art Publishing House
• Kerber Publishing House
• Sternberg Press
• DISTANZ
• Hatje Cantz Publishing House
• Slanted
• Publication opportunity in collaboration with the Center for Art and Urbanism Berlin
• DCV Books

Berlin funding programs

LCB: Translators' Workshop

What is supported? Translators are given the opportunity to refresh their language skills, gain knowledge of the profession, and question and revise their translation style through analysis, comparison, and critique at several weekend seminars through intensive text work and collaboration with professionals from the field.
Who can apply? Translators of foreign-language literature who translate into German.
How much funding is available? The scholarship is endowed with € 1,800.

LCB: Summer Academy for Translators of German Literature

What is supported? The Summer Academy for Translators of German-Language Literature offers a one-week seminar to enable participants to meet with Berlin authors, critics, and publishers. The goal is to get to know the literary life of the city and to advance concrete translation projects.
Who can apply? Applicants should have translated and published at least one German-language book in their respective target language.
How much funding is available? Accommodation and meals will be provided, travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Federal funding programs:

German Translator Fund: Scholarships: The German Translator Fund promotes translations mainly by awarding scholarships.

What is supported? Translations of foreign-language works into German, provided that the translation of these works requires a sophisticated linguistic and literary design in German. Funding is provided in eight different categories: Working Fellowships, Travel Fellowships, Johann Joachim Christoph Bode Fellowship, Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched Fellowship, Barthold Heinrich Brockes Fellowship, Initiative Fellowships, Excellence Fellowships, Residence Fellowships, Radial Fellowships.

Goethe Institute Translation Funding

What is supported? Translations of German books into a foreign language that have been published in print form by a publisher in the German-speaking world.
Who can apply? Foreign publishers.
How much funding is available? In the case of funding, only those fees can be used to determine the amount of funding that the translators will be paid, at the latest when the translation is published.

Goethe Institute: Work scholarships for translators

What is supported? Working stays for translators. Due to the current pandemic, working stays in Germany were funded in 2021 for translators of German fiction (novels, poetry, essays) who reside in Germany.
Who can apply? Professionally working literary translators.

Litrix Translation Funding: Focus 2025-27: Polish

What is supported? Books presented in the current focus language Polish on Litrix.de.
Who can apply? Polish publishing houses.
How much is funding is available? Translation into Polish with a translation fee of max. 12 - 14 € per 1,800 characters (including spaces) of the German original. For the translation of poetry and graphic novels, individual agreements are made on the amount of the translation fee, depending on the difficulty of the text. The maximum grant per book is €5,000 for translation costs. An additionalsubsidy is granted for the licensing costs.

LCB: Albrecht Lempp Fellowship

What is supported? A one-month stay in the corresponding participant country: in Krakow and at the Literary Colloquium Berlin.
Who can apply? German and Polish writers as well as German literary translators translating from Polish and Polish literary translators translating from German.

Humanities International (Geisteswissenschaften International)- Prize for the Promotion of the Translation of Works in the Humanities

What is supported? Translations of works in the humanities and social sciences. Funding is provided to cover the costs of translation into English, and in justified individual cases into other languages.
Who can apply? German publishing houses.
How much is funding is available? The prize is endowed individually. The costs of the translation will be covered up to (as a rule) a maximum of € 0.15 per word of the German source text.

EU funding programs

Creative Europe Culture - Literary Translations

What is funded? Publishers or publishing groups can propose book packages of several works of fiction by European authors for translation from one official language of the countries participating in the program into another.
Who can apply? Publishers or publishing groups that are established in one of the countries participating in the CULTURE sub-program, are a legal entity, and have been in existence for at least 2 years prior to the submission deadline. The applicant organization must be able to demonstrate publishing activity.
How much is funding is available? Subsidy of a maximum of 50% of the total eligible costs.

German-Italian Translator Award

What is awarded? Prize for the best translation and lifetime achievement for particularly successful translations of literary works, which, in addition to the extraordinary linguistic ability of a translator, show an intensive examination of the content and aesthetics of the text and its author(s).
What is the prize money? € 10.000.

German-Hebrew Translator Award

What is awarded? A translation from German into Hebrew and from Hebrew into German.
Who can apply? Prize winners are selected by a German and Israeli jury.
What is the prize money? € 10.000.

Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair

What is awarded? Outstanding new German-language publications and translations in the categories of fiction, nonfiction/essay and translation.
Who can apply? All publishers participating in the upcoming Leipzig Book Fair as main or co-exhibitors.
What is the prize money? 15 nominees will receive € 1,000 each.The winners of the three categories fiction, non-fiction and essay writing, as well as translation, will receive € 15,000 each.

Helen and Kurt Wolf Translator Award

What is awarded? An outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the U.S. in the previous year.
Who can apply? American and Canadian publishers may submit six copies of a translation from German into English. The translation must have been published in the U.S. or Canada in 2020.
What is the prize money? $10,000.

Network at the interface of research/art: Savvy Contemporary

Federal funding programs:

SZ Foundation
What is being funded? The initiation, design, and publication of art history publications such as catalogs, books, documentaries, catalog raisonnés, as well as audiovisual and online media, including their facilitation through print cost subsidies.

Course book Cultural Foundation

What is supported? The publication of contributions in the fields of philosophy, cultural studies and social theory are supported.

German Association of Women Academics

What is funded? Scientific publications in a German publishing house via a (publisher-independent) printing cost subsidy.
Who can apply? Academics of any discipline may be supported and have their achievements recognized.
How much funding is available? Up to € 500.

Walter de Gruyter Foundation

What is funded? The Research Project Foundation provides grants in the field of the humanities and awards scholarships and prizes for special scientific achievements in the field of the humanities. The aim is to strengthen science and research. To this end, the Stiftung Forschungsvorhaben donates books to academic libraries abroad. Pure printing costs are not funded.
How much is funded? Between €1,000 and €10,000.

Geschwister Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation for the Humanities

What is funded? Grants for the printing of scientific works that can be attributed to the humanities. Works for which a printing subsidy is requested should also be connected to the German-speaking cultural area in the broadest sense - be it because the author lives there, the subject matter covered falls within this area, or because the volume is published by a German, Austrian, or Swiss publishing house.

Study Foundation Dr. Uwe Czubatynski

What is supported? The purpose of the foundation is to promote science and research in the field of the humanities and the book and library system as well as culture. Specifically, funding is provided for work in the humanities, for the preservation and cataloging of archival and library materials, for institutions related to the subject matter, for research projects and scholarly events, for scholarships, and for information storage procedures.

German Old America Foundation

What is supported? Scholarship and research in the field of Ancient American Studies through funding to carry out scholarly projects andpublish scholarly works (monographs, edited volumes) in the form of lost grants.
Who can apply? Physical and legal persons in the European Union.

Elsbeth and Hertbert Weichmann Foundation

What is funded? Scholarly work on political exile by means of printing subsidies, grants for material expenses, archive travel, and support for scholarly events.

Gerda Henkel Foundation

What is funded? Work in the field of historical humanities. Printing costs are currently only awarded to particularly successful Gerda Henkel Foundation fellows or for the publication of research results of outstanding projects already funded by the Foundation.

FONTE Foundation for the Promotion of Young Scholars in the Humanities

What is supported? Print cost subsidy for dissertations and habilitation theses, preferably from the field of gender-specific literature and cultural studies of the Early Modern period.
How much funding is available? The amount of the printing cost subsidies depends on the volume of applications received and their outstanding quality.

Gertrud and Alexander Böhlig Foundation

What is supported? The foundation awards doctoral and habilitation scholarships and supports lecture series (Böhlig Lectures) at faculties and institutes in the German-speaking world. It also provides grants to institutions for the acquisition of Christian Oriental literature as well as print cost subsidies. Additionally, every two years, it awards the Alexander Böhlig Prize. The award is given for outstanding doctoral and habilitation theses, which must be no older than two years, in the field of Christian Orient and ancient Christian history of the eastern part of the empire.

Study foundation ius vivum

What is funded? Activities in the field of law, for example, through the awarding of grants for printing costs.

Erik Neutsch Foundation

What is supported? Thematically, the focus is on political education, science, research, art and culture, as well as international understanding and cooperation. This is implemented through the promotion of literature and art, in particular through scientific events, research contracts, scholarships and public educational opportunities, as well as support for young literary scholars, writers, and publications.