ZKB Schiller Prize: Carte Blanche for Gerhard Meister, with Franziska Bruecker and Anna Trauffer

We congratulate Gerhard Meister on winning this year’s Schiller Prize from the Zürcher Kantonalbank!

‘Sometimes in High German, sometimes in Bernese German, occasionally in verse, mostly in prose, the short texts in ‹Cha me das therapiere› (Der gesunde Menschenversand 2025) form a loose sequence, but not a random hodgepodge. They are grouped around a series of key themes, which they tackle in a surprisingly diverse manner. The volume imitates spoken language whilst simultaneously alienating it. The monologues repeatedly get out of hand, veering off into a sort of idling. ‘They assert superiority whilst betraying a sense of helplessness in the face of global warming, the ‘eternal chemicals’ in our bodies, the current dictates of self-optimisation, or dealing with adolescents caught up in the maelstrom of fashion,’ according to the jury’s verdict. For his Carte Blanche, Gerhard Meister has invited the two musicians Franziska Bruecker and Anna Trauffer, with whom he has a long-standing collaboration – so we have the opportunity to hear his texts set to music!