The Hamburg cartoonist Piero Masztalerz has received the German Cartoon Prize 2025. With his caricature “Wait and Wait,” the 55-year-old delivered a bitterly ironic reflection on looking the other way and complicity, the jury said on Sunday at the award ceremony in the Bremen Theater.
Masztalerz receives the “Winged Pencil” in gold, worth 4,000 euros. A total of prizes worth 11,000 euros were awarded.
Masztalerz was joking about the horror that many autocrats had come to power through more or less free elections, the jury said. “This is as courageous as it is necessary and its clarity is absolutely worthy of an award.”
The award-winning comic artist works for the satirical magazine “Eulenspiegel”, “Lübecker Nachrichten”, “Spiegel” and the youth magazine “Bravo”, among others.
© Piero Masztalerz / German Caricature Prize
Second prize to Philipp Sturm
Philipp Sturm from Leipzig received the silver award for his work “Now it’s your turn!” In his depiction of a boy on a bobby car looking at a gallery of ancestors of fallen military men, Sturm connects the generational conflict with the military challenges of this time, it was said.
© Philipp Sturm / German Caricature Prize
The Berlin illustrator Katharina Greve, who was already awarded bronze in 2024 and 2021, again received third prize. She was honored for the contribution “Women in the Crafts”.
© Katharina Greve / German Caricature Prize
According to the information, the Newcomer Prize worth 1,000 went to Robert Claus for his caricature “Taxi Mama to the Front.” Mario Lars, cartoonist from Gneven near Schwerin, received the audience award for his portrayal of “Casper David and Friedrich”.
© Robert Claus / German Caricature Prize
According to the information, a total of 262 artists with 1,208 works competed for the prize under this year’s motto “Now it’s your turn!” advertised.
The German Cartoon Prize has been awarded by the Dresden-based “Sächsische Zeitung” since 2000, and together with the “Weser-Kurier” (Bremen) since 2016. After the award ceremony, a large selection of caricatures can be seen in exhibitions in Bremen (November 3, 2025-January 23, 2026), Dresden (November 8, 2025-February 22, 2026) and Agathenburg near Hamburg (March 1, 2026-May 3, 2026).