The jury for the German-Polish Prize announced today that in 2025 they will be awarding the Special Prize to Professor Rita Süssmuth for her life’s work.

The prize for Professor Süssmuth is in recognition of her great contribution to promoting reconciliation between Germany and Poland as well as to the further development of bilateral relations in a spirit of partnership.

Professor Süssmuth is probably the most influential German alive in the area of our bilateral relations. For more than half a century she has tirelessly worked to promote friendship between Germany and Poland, particularly as President of the German Bundestag when the division of our continent was overcome, as President of the German Institute of Polish Affairs for many years and a member of the board of the Genshagen Foundation.

Dietmar Nietan, co-chair of the German-Polish Prize jury, emphasised that the decision of the jury, which contains an equal number of Germans and Poles, was unanimous.

“In Rita Süssmuth we are honouring one of the major representatives of the reconciliation generation,” Nietan declared. “Not only is this an expression of our deep respect for her life’s work in the area of German-Polish relations, but also a responsibility and an obligation for future generations to embrace her stance and her engagement for our democracy and for our European cohesion as a role model – particularly in these times in Germany.”

The Prize will be presented by Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski during a ceremony on 14 February, on the fringes of the Munich Security Conference.

Background information:

The German-Polish Prize is awarded by the governments of both countries and is endowed with 20,000 euro. The German-Polish Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness of 17 June 1991 envisages that the Prize should be awarded annually in recognition of special services to German-Polish relations. The Prize was last awarded in 2015 posthumously to Władysław Bartoszewski.

On the German side, the jury comprises the following people:

Dietmar Nietan, Member of the German Bundestag and Coordinator of German-Polish Cooperation (German Chair of the Prize jury), Stephan Erb, Director of the German-Polish Youth Office, Ulrike Kind, Desk Officer for East-Central Europe / Israel at the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery, Professor Peter Oliver Loew, Director of the German Institute of Polish Affairs, Joanna Maria Stolarek, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw.

The winners of the regular 2025 German-Polish Prize will be announced at a later date, and the Prize will probably be presented at the German-Polish Forum.