Right from the start, the SFCD supported german-language science fiction, and awarded various works of literature the club's own seal of approval.

For more than fifteen years the German Science Fiction Award (previously called SFCD literature award) has been awarded for the best german language novel and short story of the previous year. It is endowed with 1000 Euros in each category.

The award (a handmade bookend, symbolic of support for good literature) is presented to the invited winners at our annual convention and the winning books are reviewed in detail in a number of magazines, to introduce them to a wider audience.

After we had abandoned holding a vote via the club magazine ANDROMEDA NACHRICHTEN to choose the winner, a committee was set up to read and assess all new german language texts appearing each year. This method has proven effective. The committee has around seven to ten SFCD members in it, and is reconstituted anew every year. At first it was expensive to be a committee member, as they had to buy all the books via bookshops.

Since the publishers Heyne used the fact that Maria J. Pfannholz's novel "Den Überlebenden" (To the survivors) had won the German Science Fiction Award as an advert, the award became more widely known even beyond the SF field, so that nowadays we receive generous support for our work from numerous publishers in the form of review copies.

The award committee is not an elitist group within the club, but any member can participate in it, though they have to be prepared to stick with it for at least one whole year. Thomas Recktenwald (the current chair of the committee) will happily answer specific questions about the literature award.

Our Club

Julian Parr and Walter Ernsting
at the end of the 1950s

The main purpose of the SFCD is the critical discussion of SF and Fantasy and their related fields, especially in the field of literature as well as in other media such as radio play, film, theatre, television, music and fine arts. The SFCD wants to promote the exchange of information in these fields by bringing together interested people.

As a national club we primarily produce various publications, but a membership isn't purely just a subscription fee. While none of our members are obliged to work on our magazines or other projects, whoever wishes to be more than just a passive consumer of SF can either take advantage of the various opportunities within the club itself, or can pursue those useful contacts made possible through membership of the club.

The SFCD-cons also come under our aegis. These SFCD cons take place yearly, and our AGM is held then. At the con there is the opportunity to meet fans from all over Germany, and even from other parts of Europe too.