The Austrian author duo Richard Goll (65) and Alfred Treiber (66) have been awarded the "Axel-Eggebrecht-Preis" 2010 by the Sparkasse Leipzig Media Foundation. The two radio pioneers took the award from the hands of Andreas Koch, board member of Sparkasse Leipzig, while Koch quoted the patron saint of the prize, who saw the essence of the feature in the author's ability to know and love his subject: "With Richard Goll and Alfred Treiber, we are honoring two great names in this genre today who live and implement the high standards of Eggebrecht perfectly in their work," said Koch. The laudatory speech was held by Peter Leonhard Braun, another feature great, who has been closely familiar with the work of the duo Goll/Treiber since the 1970s. "What I admire most about the two of them is their fearlessness, their not being afraid of people or authorities, their cold and hard eye for the effectiveness of a program and their hot heart for the cause," Braun said. "You almost never have this combination. Even in an international comparison this is unprecedented. Braun also thanked the media foundation for its commitment. To honour radio pioneers such as Richard Goll and Alfred Treiber, who have written European radio history, is a good thing for Leipzig.
The laureates described their commitment to the feature as a long way through the ORF authorities, which had been marked by tough battles. In doing so, they also benefited from the experience and support of their colleagues in Germany: "Without German development aid, many things would have been a little different," said Treiber. "The fact of being praised in the name of Axel Eggebrecht is therefore something extraordinary for us.
In addition to Braun, this year's jury included the Axel Eggebrecht Award Winner of the Year 2008, Helmut Kopetzky, Dr. Peter Klein (Vienna, Head of the Literature, Radio Play and Feature Department at ORF), Heinz Klunker (Berlin, Head of Feature Deutschlandfunk 1977-1997) as well as Linde Rotta (Leipzig, freelance author, initiator of the Leipzig Radio Writing Workshop). The jury had to deal with an extraordinarily strong field of competition. It had before it the complete works of 11 candidates, proposed by ARD, ORF and the Association of German Writers. Although the importance of the nominations would have allowed the jury to award the Life Work Prize five times, it unanimously decided in favor of the historical broadcasting achievement of Richard Goll and Alfred Treiber. The catalogue of Richard Goll's and Alfred Treiber's works contains more than 100 features. They received national and international awards, founded the Feature Editorial Office at ORF and soon began recruiting and training potential comrades-in-arms throughout Austria. Today, after 30 years of programming, the features are among the flagships of the cultural channel Österreich 1.