In the midst of the debate about the Nazi past of the former "Stern" editor-in-chief Henri Nannen, the journalist award named after him has been presented - under a different name.

With the renaming of the “Stern Prize”, the publishing house Gruner + Jahr and the “Stern” magazine belonging to the publishing house wanted to defuse the debate and focus on the award winners.

Nannen was still an issue several times on Wednesday evening in Hamburg.

The chairman of the "Stern" editor-in-chief, Gregor Peter Schmitz, said at the start: "Perhaps we all didn't look closely enough.

And sometimes it takes external impulses to take a closer look, and there was.” Last week, the publishing house announced the one-off renaming.

Schmitz also said that there is no alternative prize trophy yet, this will be given to the winners later.

The location was also much smaller this time than at previous awards.

In May, a contribution from the research format "STRG_F" by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) with details on the well-known past of the former "Stern" editor-in-chief and magazine initiator Nannen (1913-1996) during the Nazi era stimulated the debate.

Gruner + Jahr announced that a committee would be set up to advise on the future use of the name for the prize and for the Henri Nannen School.

A decision will be made by the end of the year.

Nannen's widow Eske Nannen also said a few days ago that an external historian should scientifically review the life story.

Prize for "The Hanau Protocols"

The journalist prize was awarded in several categories in the evening.

Timofey Neshitov and Özlem Gezer won the “Egon Erwin Kisch Prize” for the best report with their “Spiegel” report “The Hanau Protocols”.

On February 19, 2020, an assassin shot nine people for racist motives in Hanau, Hesse.

The journalist team spoke to relatives.

The jury honored the reporting by the then Ippen investigative team and “Spiegel” colleagues on the case of the former “Bild” editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt as “Story of the Year”.

"Why Julian Reichelt had to go" by Isabell Huelsen, Juliane Löffler, Anton Rainer, Alexander Kühn, Martin U. Müller, Daniel Drepper, Katrin Langhans and Marcus Engert appeared in "Spiegel".

The case involved allegations of abuse of power, and Reichelt ultimately had to leave the Axel Springer group.

The reporting also received a lot of attention in the media industry because the Ippen team was unable to publish its research in its own media after the publisher intervened and then teamed up with the "Spiegel" colleagues.

The journalists Stella Vespermann, Andreas Neumann and Sebastian Manz won in the "Local" category with an article on discrimination when looking for an apartment.

This appeared on Radio Bremen.

In the "Investigative" category, the team of authors John Goetz, Bastian Berbner, Ole Pfluger, Ben Hopkins, Sabine Korbmann, Barbara Biemann, Johanna Leuschen, Kathrin Bronnert, Lukas Augustin, Poul-Erik Heilbuth, Dietmar Schiffermüller, Volker Steinhoff, Stefan Buchen and Gunnar Krupp for the documentary "Slahi and his torturers" about a Guantanamo prisoner.

It ran on several ARD channels.

The well-known documentary filmmaker Stephan Lamby, who was connected via video, received a special award from “Stern”.