25-05-2025
Historian Dan Diner receives Germany's Ludwig Börne Prize
German historian Dan Diner has been awarded the Ludwig Börne Prize for his research focusing on modern history.
Juror Daniel Cohn-Bendit honoured the 79-year-old retired professor as a courageous intellectual who, in a time of great confusion, helps "us to constantly reflect on and understand our era."
The Ludwig Börne Prize, named after author and essayist Ludwig Börne (1786-1837), has been awarded to German-language authors of essays, critique and reportage since 1993 and is endowed with €20,000 ($22,700).
Previous laureates include former German vice chancellor Robert Habeck, who studied literature and has published a number of works, and popular author Daniel Kehlmann.
Born in 1946, Diner studied law and social sciences at Frankfurt's Goethe University before he went on to complete his dissertion on martial law.
He is professor emeritus of modern history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as the director of the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at Germany's Leipzig University.
According to the Hebrew University, his research focuses on "the conceptualization of modern Jewish history and an interpretation of WWII observed from the periphery."
