The Heinrich Böll Foundation has decided to pull out of the event during which Masha Gessen was to receive the Hannah Arendt Award

The Heinrich Böll Foundation has decided to pull out of the event during which Masha Gessen was to receive the Hannah Arendt Award. Imme Scholz and Jan Philipp Albrecht, Co-Presidents of the Foundation, explain this decision as follows:

“This year, in August, we were overjoyed to learn that the jury had decided to honour Masha Gessen with the Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thought. We value Gessen’s work and unconditional commitment to democracy and to debating uncomfortable issues. We value Gessen’s questioning mindset and Gessen as a person with a deep love for freedom and who defies autocratic propensities.

Since the weekend, an essay by Gessen, published in The New Yorker on December 9th, has lead to heated debates in many places. Against this background, the Senate of the City of Bremen has decided to cancel the event and award ceremony that was to take place on December 14th, 2023 and, as a consequence, the event has lost its venue. Following this, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Bremen and the national Heinrich Böll Foundation have decided to withdraw from the event.

We want to make it very clear that this withdrawal does in no way mean that we are distancing ourselves from Gessen, nor that we want to strip Gessen of the award, or that we no longer value Gessen’s works. We will try to organise a different type of event with Masha Gessen, an event enabling a nuanced dialogue – including about certain statements made by Gessen that we do not fully endorse – as today such dialogue is more important than ever before.”