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Thomas Bernhard und der Staatspreis-Skandal: Vorgeschichte, Ablauf und Folgen einer Inszenierung

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4 March 1968, Vienna Ministry of Schooling: Thomas Bernhard is awarded the Austrian national award for novels. His unconventional acceptance speech evokes the minister´s displeasure; in turn, Bernhard feels snubbed by the reaction and a newspaper runs the title: "This is how a national award laureate expresses his ´thanks´: By berating Austria!" This incident goes down in literary history as a national award scandal. But what really happened? Olaf Lahayne studied the sources and interviewed contemporary witnesses. His depiction gives a peek behind the scenes of the literary machine, and throws new light on the staging and manipulation strategies employed by Bernhard.

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4 March 1968, Vienna Ministry of Schooling: Thomas Bernhard is awarded the Austrian national award for novels. His unconventional acceptance speech evokes the minister´s displeasure, whereupon Bernhard feels snubbed by the reaction and a newspaper runs the title: "This is how a national award laureate expresses his ´thanks´: By berating Austria!" This incident went down in literary history as a national award scandal. But what really happened? How did things transpire and on what grounds is Bernhard´s reputation as a scandalous author based? Olaf Lahayne studied the sources, searched the archives and interviewed contemporary witnesses. His elucidating depiction gives a peak behind the scenes of the literary machine, and throws new light on the staging and manipulation strategies employed by Thomas Bernhard, using his acceptance speech as an example.

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Lahayne, Olaf
Dr. Olaf Lahayne, Physiker, ist Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Technischen Universität Wien.

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