In times of heightened political debates, decreasing tolerance, and a shift to the right in society, the Ruckhaberle Award emphasizes the importance of open spaces for art and discourse to critically reflect on contemporary issues. The prize honors visual artists living in Germany who, through their work, find compelling ways to illuminate complex or underrepresented social contexts and contribute to a nuanced understanding of our time.
Since 2019, the Künstlerhof Frohnau (KHF) and the Department of Art and History Reinickendorf have awarded the Ruckhaberle Award to commemorate the work of artist, curator, and cultural politician Dieter Ruckhaberle.
The prize includes a short-list exhibition, with the winner receiving €2,000, a two-month artist residency at Künstlerhof Frohnau, and a publication. Previous winners include Nafis Fatollahzadeh (2023), Uliana Bychenkova & Anna Scherbyna (2022), Surya Gied (2021), Annette Frick (2020), and Luiza Prado (2019).
Since the 1960s Ruckhaberle was a leading figure of West-Berlin’s cultural scene. He tirelessly promoted and worked towards better working conditions for artists in Germany, always convinced that artistic freedom could only be guaranteed by an absence of economic pressure.
Ruckhaberle initiated the IG Medien, a union for media related professions, and Künstlersozialkasse (KSK), a subsidized health insurance for artists. He co-founded various art institutions such as nGbK and the Staatliche Kunsthalle, as whose director he served for many years.
As an artist Ruckhaberle created an extensive and multifaceted body of work, ranging between painting and sculpture, both abstract and figuratively, in search of new poetic forms and positions of critical contemporaneity. He passed away in May 2018 at his last major project: the Künstlerhof Frohnau, an artist “village” on the Northern outskirts of Berlin, which offers affordable studio spaces for artists since 1998.
The Ruckhaberle Award is an initiative of Künstlerhof Frohnau e.V., in cooperation with the Department of Art and History Reinickendorf.