Hanseatic Goethe Prize
The Hanseatic Goethe Prize was from 1949 to 1959 per year, then granted until 2005 every two years to individuals from European countries, " who have distinguished themselves through outstanding unifying humanitarian services in the spirit of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. " This award was endowed with 25,000 euros and was supported by the Foundation of the Hamburg merchant Alfred Toepfer (1894-1993), the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung FVS awarded. Chairman of the Management Board until her death in November 2010 Birte Toepfer, the wife of Henry Toepfer, the youngest son of the founder.
The Board of Trustees for the Hanseatic Goethe Prize were: Nikolaus Lobkowicz, Eichstätt ( Chairman), Bernard Böschenstein, Geneva (Vice Chairman); Klaus beans, Aalborg / Denmark; Luigi V. Ferraris, Rome / Italy, Council of State; Ortrud Gutjahr, Hamburg; Jerzy Holzer, Warsaw / Poland, Ludo Simons, Antwerp / Belgium.
In addition, the Foundation awarded since 1973 to 2005 still a " Johann -Wolfgang -von- Goethe Medal in Gold" for the same services or for " contributions to the conservation of European cultural heritage ". Previous recipients of this award included Siegfried Lenz, Fondazione Giorgio Cini which, Venice; Rolf Liebermann, Hamburg; Max Wehrli, Zurich; Hans Heinrich Thyssen- Bornemisza de Kászon, Lugano / Madrid; Viktor Frankl, Vienna, and Pietro Citati, Rome.
Because Alfred Toepfer activities in and for the Third Reich of the Hanseatic Goethe Prize 2005 was rejected by the theater director Ariane Mnouchkine. Earlier, in 1996, the city had Strasbourg, Strasbourg Prix distances, a different price from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation FVS In particular, the Basel science historian Michael Fahlbusch Toepfer criticized finance the Nazi cultural and border country policy as " cultural fifth column ".
The Foundation regretted Mnouchkine's rejection and referred to the report of an "independent scientific commission " chaired by the historian Hans Mommsen, who examined Toepfer's activities in the Third Reich. This one came after three years of research in December 2000 at the end: Toepfer " never shared the central goals and motives of the leading Nazis. Racism and anti-Semitism were far from him. [ ... ] But Alfred Toepfer the National Socialist dictatorship has never fought. Solidarity with whom he has as little expressed as sympathy with circles of resistance to Hitler from their marginalized and persecuted. " It is but " failed in every case to bring Toepfer with the criminal actions of the Nazi regime in direct or indirect connection ".
Mommsen attacked so Fahl Busch's theses on, but the legitimacy remains controversial to forgive still cultural awards for " outstanding unifying humanitarian services " in its name. This claim was the founder himself does not do justice because he distinguished also Nazis in the Third Reich, and he arranged with a business partner and politically with the Nazis.
The Foundation decided to adjust the allocation of the two Goethe- prices and no longer auszuloben other prices.