The Tisa Prize commemorates the life and work of Tisa von der Schulenburg. She was born in 1903 in Tressow and died in 2001 in Dorsten, where she had lived and worked as Sister Paula in the Ursuline convent since 1950. Throughout her life, Tisa worked intensively with people in borderline situations. Situations that affect people deeply and demand the very last of them. She not only expressively depicted the physical severity of industrial and especially mining work, but also captured these “people on site” in the very essence of their existence. This rarely expressive existential gravity can also be found in the depictions of lepers in Ethiopia, in political events (Chile, Vietnam, South Africa, Kosovo) or the Jewish pogroms up to the Holocaust.
The Tisa Prize is intended to carry on the spirit of Tisa von der Schulenburg (Sister Paula). It is characterized by a deep understanding of the needs of people in the world, the conditions of the working world and at the same time by a strong trust in God. This spirit combines an awareness of one’s own origins with great openness and a call for care and solidarity. At the same time, it is characterized by a feeling for the beauty of our world and by confidence in the creative power of humanity.
Application deadline: February 22, 2026