4 March 1968, Vienna Ministry of Schooling: Thomas Bernhard is awarded the Austrian national award for novels. His unconventional acceptance speech evokes the minister's displeasure; in turn, Bernhard feels snubbed by the reaction and a newspaper runs the title: "This is how a national award laureate expresses his 'thanks': By berating Austria!" This incident goes down in literary history as a national award scandal. But what really happened? Olaf Lahayne studied the sources and interviewed contemporary witnesses. His depiction gives a peek behind the scenes of the literary machine, and throws new light on the staging and manipulation strategies employed by Bernhard.