2023-12-16 18:19:25
Bremen – The celebration of the controversial awarding of the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought to Masha Gessen took place on a small scale on Saturday. Instead of in the large hall of the Bremen town hall, a good 50 guests crowded into a small event room in the Steintorviertel, where the sponsoring association had moved after the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Bremen Senate withdrew. Many of the guests had to stand in the narrow space, and police officers secured the event in front of the door. One jury member criticized the award.
The discussion about the honor was triggered by statements made by Gessen in an article in “The New Yorker” magazine. Gessen compared the situation in Gaza with the Jewish ghettos in occupied Europe. The honor for Gessen had been decided at an earlier date.
The event originally planned for Friday in the town hall was canceled after criticism of Gessen’s statements. The Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Bremen Senate had previously withdrawn from the award ceremony.
On Saturday morning, those responsible had moved the venue, which had already been changed, at short notice – for security reasons, as the organizer said. In the end, the award sponsoring association was nevertheless satisfied. “It was a very close event in a small format that we are all glad that it took place,” said Eva Senghaas from the club’s board of directors to the German Press Agency. It was a “very fruitful form of dialogue” that showed “that controversial questions and assessments can be discussed in a good way.”
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Jury member Klaus Wolschner, however, distanced himself from the honor. “The jury selected Masha Gessen as this year’s winner in early summer based on her analyzes of the Russian Putin system,” said the journalist and co-founder of “taz” in a statement after the award ceremony. “I do not assume that Gessen’s texts on the war in Gaza would have been recognized by the jury of the Hannah Arendt Prize as a special example of political thought.” Gessen had “a one-sided view of the war in Gaza” and during the Honor in Bremen “rejected a characterization of Hamas’ role even when specifically asked.”
Since the jury’s decision had already been made in early summer, the only thing left to do was cancel the award ceremony and this celebratory setting, the Böll Foundation said. “We cannot reverse the award.”
The sponsoring association had defended sticking to the honor and looked for another venue. It was noteworthy that a public debate about understanding the conflict was prevented and that Gessen was boycotted, it said. Gessen strives to “bring knowledge, insight and sharp thinking skills to this dispute”. Gessen, born in Moscow in 1967, writes about political trends and conflicts in US and Russian society. Gessen lives in New York.
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