The award ceremony is traditionally held at an anniversary gala dinner to which the museum invites numerous friends and guests from the realms of politics, business, culture, and the media. The proceeds from the dinners go to support the museum’s educational work for children and youth.
“Tolerance is... anything but arbitrariness. Tolerance is the ability to engage in serious dialogue, accept that others think differently, and see them as an asset.” This is how Chancellor Angela Merkel defined the word in 2006 in her speech presenting the award to Helmut Panke.
Award Winners
The following people have received the Prize for Understanding and Tolerance to date:
| Year awarded | Award winner |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State Igor Levit, pianist |
| 2019 | Heiko Maas, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Anselm Kiefer, artist |
| 2018 | Susanne Klatten, entrepreneur David Grossman, writer |
| 2017 | Joachim Gauck, former President of Germany Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens AG |
| 2016 | Renate Lasker-Harpprecht and Anita Lasker Wallfisch, historical eyewitnesses Hasso Plattner, businessman |
| 2015 | W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin |
| 2014 | Hubert Burda, publisher Wolfgang Schäuble, Federal Finance Minister |
| 2013 | Berthold Leibinger, associate of the TRUMPF Group Iris Berben, actor |
| 2012 | Klaus Mangold, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rothschild GmbH (Frankfurt and Moscow) Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of Germany |
| 2011 | Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany |
| 2010 | Jan Philipp Reemtsma, literature scholar Hubertus Erlen, business executive |
| 2009 | Franz Fehrenbach and Christof Bosch, both as representatives of the Bosch company Michael Verhoeven, film director |
| 2008 | Roland Berger, corporate consultant Imre Kertész, Nobel Laureate in Literature |
| 2007 | Helmut Kohl, former Chancellor of Germany Fritz Stern, historian |
| 2006 | Daniel Barenboim, General Music Director of the Berlin State Oper Helmut Panke, business executive |
| 2005 | Heinz Berggruen, art collector and patron Otto Graf Lambsdorff, former Federal Minister of Germany |
| 2004 | Michael Otto, businessman Johannes Rau, former President of Germany |
| 2003 | Otto Schily, former Interior Minister of Germany Friede Springer, publisher |
| 2002 | Berthold Beitz, former Chairman of the Curatorium of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation Heinrich von Pierer, former Chairman of the Siemens AG Board |
Audio recording of the acceptance speech by the 2015 award winner, W. Michael Blumenthal (in German); Jewish Museum Berlin, 2015
Impressions of the Award Ceremonies from 2002 to 2020
Contact
Johanna Brandt
Managing Director
T +49 (0)30 259 93 553
F +49 (0)30 259 93 432
j.brandt@jmberlin.de
Address
Jewish Museum Berlin
Lindenstraße 9–14
10969 Berlin
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Audio Recordings: Listen to Past Museum Events (66)
Listen to Past Museum Events
Lectures, book presentations, theatrical readings, panel discussions, and award ceremonies
World History in Berlin
The Humboldt Brothers and the Jewish Enlightenment
With: Uta Lohmann, Sebastian Panwitz, and Conrad Wiedemann, Humboldt researchers
Language: German
Lecture/Discussion
30 Oct 2019
Antisemitism Today – A Challenge for School and Society
21 February 2019
Talk by Juliane Wetzel as part of the symposium Actively Countering Antisemitism and Exclusion (in German)
Katharina Galor: The Temple Mount
9 January 2019
Archaeologist Katharina Galor talks about the historical and archaeological heritage of Jerusalem’s most controversial site – the Temple Mount (Har haBait). She presents various research initiatives and highlights the role of religiously or politically motivated agendas in the research process.
Assaf Gavron:
Achtzehn Hiebe (Eighteen Blows)
28 July 2018
Reading and Discussion
Achtzehn Hiebe is a novel of love and a detective story, a piece of contemporary history, and a journey through Israel of today. The Israeli author Assaf Gavron presents his new novel with the actor Golo Euler and the journalist Ulrich Gutmair (taz).
Stolen Judaica
Provenance Research in Israel and Germany
In this symposium, research that explores the origins of Jewish ceremonial objects exclusively in Israel and Germany, took center stage for the first time.
Conference
18/19 Jun 2018
Rechavia – Grunewald in the Orient
28 February 2018
Reading with Thomas Sparr on German-Jewish Jerusalem (in German)
A Canon of Jewish Renaissance
22 February 2018
Bernhard Jensen, author of the first monograph about the Soncino Society in conversation with publisher Thedel von Wallmoden (in German)
Jerusalem for Cowards
19 February 2018
Discussion with filmmakers Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias following the screening of Jerusalem for Cowards (in German and English)
Who is carrying the Menorah?
8 February 2018
Talk by Steven Fine on Jewish Counter-Histories of the Arch of Titus Spoils Panel
The Many Deaths of Jew Süss
22 January 2018
Reading with Yair Mintzker on Joseph Süß Oppenheimer – Jew Süss
Germanija. How I Became an Adult and a Jew in Germany
19 October 2017
Reading and discussion on Dmitrij Belkin's narrative that also throws light on immigration today.
IN-/EXCLUSIONS and Self-Empowerment in the Cultural Business
12 October 2017
With Max Czollek, Dan Thy Nguyen, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, and Mutlu Ergün-Hamaz (in German)
Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD (People, National Community, AfD)
10 October 2017
Book presentation and discussion with Alexander Häusler and the author Michael Wildt (in German)
Incredibly Clever
5 August 2017
Iris Berben reads Paula Buber (in German and English)
Before the After Party
15 July 2017
Reading and talk with the author Molly Antopol, translator Patricia Klobusiczky and actor Katharina Marie Schubert (in German and English).
Yousef Abad
6 July 2017
Eliz Sanasarian and Elham Rokni on video art by Elham Rokni and the situation of Jews in Iran from the 1979 revolution to today.
The New Völkerwanderung
Book Presentation by Asfa Wossen Asserate
3 July 2017
Asfa-Wossen Asserate presents his latest book Die neue Völkerwanderung (The New Völkerwanderung) on the grievances of the EU’s Africa policy.
Peter Schäfer – "Two gods in heaven. Concepts of god in the ancient Jewish world"
12 June 2017
Peter Schäfer and Michael Wolffsohn on monotheism in Judaism and Christianity and concepts of a second god.
With Karamba to the Bundestag
My Journey from Senegal to the German Parliament
1 June 2017
Karamba Diaby tells of his birth country Senegal, of life in the GDR, his work in the Bundestag, and of his vision of an open and future-oriented society (in German).
Ariel Sabar
My Father’s Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq
11 May 2017
Reading and talk with the writer Ariel Sabar on the story of his father Yona Sabar, professor of the Neo-Aramaic language, and the Kurdish-Jewish history.
The Dress of the Unfaithful Wife
Artist Talk and Discussion on Women and Sexuality in Judaism
9 May 2017
Talk with Andi LaVine Arnovitz, Amy K. Milligan, Professor for Jewish Studies and Women's Studies, and Emily D. Bilski, art historian, on the role of women in religious Judaism.
Israelis in Germany
Ideological Debates and Changing Identities
4 May 2017
Talk and Slideshow with Dr. Dani Kranz and Katja Harbi from the University of Wuppertal on Israeli Jews in today's Germany (in German).
Im/Possibilities
Perspectives on Refugee Participation
29 March 2017
Conference on the situation for refugees in Europe and Germany. Recording of the opening event with a talk by Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK, followed by a panel discussion (in German and English).
Our Father: A Sinti Family Recounts
23 March 2017
Conversation and reading with the German-Sinti civil rights activist and author Anita Awosusi and her daughter Tayo Onutor about their family’s history (in German).
Europe Against the Jews. 1880-1945
22 February 2017
Historian Götz Aly and Daniel Cohn-Bendit discuss antisemitism in Eastern and Western Europe from 1880 to the present (in German).
The Acid Test
How Fear of Foreigners is Threatening our Democracy
16 February 2017
The Islamic studies and education scholar Lamya Kaddor reads from her book and discusses integration with Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz and Andreas Zick (in German).
Gottes Körper (God's Body)
13 February 2017
Christoph Markschies in conversation with Peter Schäfer about Christian conceptions of God and their roots in other ancient religions (in German).
All Sorts of Stories
21 November 2016
The actor Johanna Wokalek reads from Bertha Pappenheim’s German translation of the Maase book, a collection of Yiddish stories, fairy tales, and legends (in German).
Joshua Cohen:
You want a golem?
17 November 2016
Reading and conversation with Joshua Cohen and Caspar Battegay about the golem myth in the age of automation.
A Jew in Neukölln – My Path to Coexistence of Religions
19 October 2016
The theology student and writer Ármin Langer reads from his book and talks about Jewish life in Neukölln (in German).
The Clay Giant's Alive!
8 October 2016
Anke Kuhl reads from her comic about two kids and their golem, with musical accompaniment by the cellist Martin Klenk (in German).
Reading with Christian Berkel: Tevye the Dairyman
9 July 2016
To mark the 100th anniversary of Sholem Alejchem’s death, the actor Christian Berkel will read from the new translation of the book Tevye the Dairyman
Herzl reloaded – It’s No Fairytale
Staged reading. Doron Rabinovici, writer and historian, and Natan Sznaider, sociologist, have a fictional email correspondence with Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism (in German).
Reading/Discussion
7 Jul 2016
Ludwig Haas – A Left-liberal Campaigner for Peace and Democracy
9 June 2016
Symposium with Evening Lecture by Gerhart Baum on the liberal Campaigner Ludwig Haas (1875-1930) and "Perspectives of Left-wing Liberalism Today".
The Holocaust and the Problem of Visual Representation
30 May 2016
Talk with artist and exhibition curator Peter Weibel about Boris Lurie and visual representation of the Holocaust (in German).
Helga Krohn: Bruno Asch
19 May 2016
Reading and talk with Helga Krohn on the local politician and socialist Bruno Asch.
Angst ums Abendland (Fears For the West)
Book Presentation with Daniel Bax
Talk with Daniel Bax and Gideon Botsch on Right-wing populist parties, anti-Muslim sentiments, flight and asylum (in German).
6 Apr 2016
Prize for Understanding and Tolerance
Acceptance speech by the 2015 award winner: W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin (in German).
14 Nov 2015
Béla Guttmann - The World History of Football in one Person
4 August 2015
The writer Detlev Claussen presents his book about the Hungarian-Jewish soccer coach Béla Guttmann (in German).
Attempts to Describe Anti-Semitism
Book presentation and discussion on the history of antisemitism research before 1944 with Hans-Joachim Hahn, Olaf Kistenmacher, Dr. Werner Treß, and Franziska Krah (in German).
Reading/Discussion
22 Apr 2015
From a Berlin Farce to a Story of Success
2 March 2015
The writer Daniel Bussenius talks with Inka Bertz and Heinrich Wefing, reporter from Die Zeit, about the museum’s development from 1971 to 2001 (in German).
The Realignment of "Education after Auschwitz" in Immigration Society
Book presentation and panel discussion with the author Rosa Fava, Angela Kühner (University of Frankfurt), Selman Erkovan, history teacher in training, and Marco Kühnert, a guide at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg (in German).
27 Jan 2015
The Book of Job. Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics
The editors of a volume of essays about the Book of Job, Leora Batnitzky (Princeton) and Ilana Pardes (Jerusalem), in conversation with Vivian Liska
Language: in German and English
Reading/Discussion
21 Jan 2015
What’s your "Heimat"?
14 November 2014
W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, and Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, talk about culture, religion, and being at home in a foreign place (in German).
Zimzum. God and the creation of the world
Author Christoph Schulte talks with Micha Brumlik and Vivian Liska about his book on the notion of zimzum (tzimtzum) in Jewish mysticism
Language: German
Reading/Discussion
30 Oct 2014
Hebrew Worlds – On the Presence of Ancient Texts in Modern Ivrith
Anne Birkenhauer, a translator and the August Wilhelm Schlegel Guest Professor of the German Translation Fund and the FU Berlin, gives her inaugural lecture (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
27 Oct 2014
Forgotten Soldiers?
3 September 2014
Historian Tim Grady presents his research on the commemoration of German-Jewish soldiers from the First World War.
The pictures are among us
7 April 2014
Presentation of a book about the treatment and business of art stolen by the Nazis and the Gurlitt case with the writer Stefan Koldehoff and Michael Naumann (in German).
Modernized, then Tolerated?
Micha Brumlik, Petra Bahr, Kadir Sanci, and Thomas Bauer about religion and navigating between tradition and adaptation
Language: German
Discussion
10 Oct 2013
1933: Denial, Opposition, and Protest
Wolf Gruner about his research into German Jews’ responses to Nazi persecution (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
8 Aug 2013
Peter Schäfer: The Origins of Jewish Mysticism
Panel discussion between the author Peter Schäfer, Christoph Markschies, and Micha Brumlik about Schäfer’s book on the history of early Jewish mysticism
Language: German
Reading/Discussion
25 Jun 2012
The History of Jews and Dönme in Turkey
The Turkish studies scholar Corry Guttstadt and the historian Marc Baer discuss the history of Jews and Dönme (converts) in Turkey (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
31 Jan 2011
Perrine Simon-Nahum: Jews in France Today
Talk by Perrine Simon-Nahum about her book on the circumstances of Jews in France, both past and present.
Lecture/Discussion
29 Nov 2010
W. Michael Blumenthal: Around the World in Eighty Years. My Life
W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, presents his memoir (in German).
Reading/Discussion
30 Sept 2010
Jewish Youth Movement in Germany
22 May 2010
German-language talk by Ulrike Pilarczyk and panel discussion with Micha Brumlik, Hans Jakob Ginsburg, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, and Moshe Zuckermann about the history of the Zionist youth movement in Germany (in German).
Dialogues on Jewish Present: On the Question of Redemption – Messianism and the End of Days
with Moshe Idel, Elliot R. Wolfson, and Micha Brumlik about the Messianic promise of redemption and its relevance in the twenty-first century
Language: English
Reading/Discussion
10 Dec 2009
Walther Rathenau's Life: Text and Context
Talk by Shulamit Volkov about the life of the writer, politician, and industrialist Walther Rathenau (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
15 Oct 2009
Migrants Moving History
Saskia Sassen about immigration, diversity, and future prospects for dealing with history and citizenship in multiethnic societies.
Lecture/Discussion
25 Oct 2008
Self Displaced Person. Peter Szondi's Problematic Judaism
3 December 2007
Talk by Andreas Isenschchmid about the life and work of the literary scholar Peter Szondi (in German).
Painted in words. The portrait of a lost time
10 October 2007
Reading and conversation with the artist Samuel Bak about his family’s story and his survival as a child in German-occupied Vilnius (in German).
A synagogue curtain at the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter
23 November 2006
Talk by Vera Bendt about a synagogue curtain that was discovered at the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter, where it had been listed in records as an altar curtain (in German).
Exile in Shanghai
Conversation between W. Michael Blumenthal and Horst Eisfelder about the time they both spent in Shanghai, where 18,000 Jews from Germany had taken refuge (in German).
14 Nov 2006
The place of psychoanalysis in the history of the Jews
30 May 2005
Talk by Eli Zaretsky about the influence of psychoanalysis on Judaism and the place of psychoanalysis in Jewish history.
Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture
In conversation with Susanne Weingarten, Daniel Libeskind presents his autobiography.
Language: English
Reading/Discussion
25 Jan 2005
The Fragile Foundation: The Quest for German-Jewish “Normalcy”
Salomon Korn reads essays from his book about Jewish life in Germany, Jewish culture and remembrance, architecture, and politics.
Language: German
Reading/Discussion
30 Sep 2003
Times of Commemoration: On Jewish Histories and Others
Book presentation by the historian Dan Diner about remembering the twentieth century as an era of violence, forced displacement, and genocide (in German).
Reading/Discussion
24 Jun 2003
The Prizewinners 2019
The Prize for Understanding and Tolerance goes to German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas and the artist Anselm Kiefer
All About ...
The Prizewinners 2020
The prize will be awarded to former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and pianist Igor Levit.
Press Release
27 Oct 2020