In 2024, the Wunderblock Stiftung presented its second Wunderblock Award. The prize, endowed with €10,000, was made possible through the support of the Peter Weiler Stiftung.

The award honors artistic positions that reframe what has been seen and experienced in surprising ways.

This year, five female artists from the fields of visual arts, performing arts, and literature were considered for the award. After intensive deliberation, the foundation decided to present the Wunderblock Award 2024 to Annett Gröschner in recognition of her life’s work.

Gröschner is among the most renowned authors and chroniclers of the former GDR and its historical reappraisal since 1989. Her many award-winning works evoke images of a period that is scarcely present in today’s artistic consciousness—without ever appearing nostalgic. Instead, she creates a portrait of contemporary Germany that reveals the complexity and simultaneity of German history while also pointing toward the future.

By honoring Annett Gröschner, the Wunderblock Stiftung also seeks to deepen the historical understanding of the foundation’s site — the former agricultural cooperative (LPG)— and to highlight its transformation within the context of the surrounding village.

Annett Gröschner, born in 1964 in Magdeburg, is a freelance writer, lecturer, and journalist, contributing to publications such as the Berlin section of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (1999–2002) and taz, and serving as editor for 10 nach 8 at Zeit Online. She is best known for her novels Moskauer Eis (2000) and Walpurgistag (2011).

Gröschner’s work spans poetry, prose, documentary literature, radio features, and theatre. She has participated in numerous interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of history, cultural studies, and visual arts, including the publication and exhibition Inventarisierung der Macht. Die Berliner Mauer aus anderer Sicht at Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin (2016, with Arwed Messmer), and DIEKANT. KunstText_Straße at Villa Oppenheim, Berlin (2021/22, with Ina Weber).

Her recent publications include Berliner Bürgerstuben. Palimpsests and Stories* (2020), Die Spaziergänge in Berlin. Anna Louisa Karsch (2022), and Drei ostdeutsche Frauen betrinken sich und gründen den idealen Staat (2024, with Peggy Mädler and Wenke Seemann).

She has received numerous fellowships and awards, notably the Grand Art Prize Berlin (Fontanepreis) and the Klopstock Prize of Saxony-Anhalt, both in 2021.