It is targeted on short form works including Essays, Satire, Song, Treatises and Pamphlets.
Texts should "verify reality, disclose backgrounds and help the reader towards a critical evaluation".
[b] The prize was originally awarded by the Kurt Tucholsky Foundation [de] to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Kurt Tucholsky's death.
Since 2003 the Kurt-Tucholsky-Gesellschaft (Kurt Tucholsky Society) has been awarding the prize.
[2] The Foundation remains closely involved with the administration of the prize, but after the copyright on Tucholsky's writings lapsed it was no longer able to fund the prize.