25th annual Obermayer Award winners announced
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27, 2025) in Berlin's Rotes Rathaus, Obermayer Awards will be given to Germans who raise awareness of Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis, use local history to fight antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, and promote understanding between groups. The Awards will be presented by the Obermayer Foundation together with the Berlin House of Representatives and the Governing Mayor of Berlin. The ceremony will also be broadcast via livestream on the website of Widen the Circle at 18:30 CET/12:30 EST.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Obermayer Awards. “At a time when antisemitism and other forms of prejudice and hatred are on the rise in many countries, Obermayer Award winners continue to set an example for everyone who is striving to overcome legacies of violent racism and bigotry,” said Joel Obermayer, Executive Director of Widen the Circle, which administers the awards program. “This is the only U.S.-based initiative to honor German volunteers who selflessly do this vital work. Moreover, on our anniversary, we also celebrate the expansion of the Obermayer Awards initiative, whose leaders created a new organization, Widen the Circle, in 2019. Our programs include a collaborative network of Germans doing remembrance work, and a fellowship program with their counterparts in the United States.”
The winners of the 2025 Obermayer Awards are:
Dr. Steffen Hänschen
Dr. Steffen Hänschen (Berlin) brings together Germans and Eastern Europeans on remembrance projects as a means to combat longstanding prejudices. He has been leading and organizing educational trips for the Stanisław Hantz e. V. educational organization for more than twenty years, during which he has brought Germans to Poland, Lithuania and western Ukraine to visit sites connected with the Holocaust and learn about Jewish history in these countries. He is the author of the book Das Transitghetto in Izbica im System des Holocaust (The Transit Ghetto in Izbica in the System of the Holocaust). In Berlin, Hänschen works as a teacher of German as a foreign language at Babylonia e. V.
Harald Höflein
Harald Höflein (Ober-Ramstadt, Hesse) has been involved in remembrance work since the 1990s. In addition to his work as a teacher, he is an archive educator at the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt, where he has been developing projects and programs for young people as well as training formats and teaching models for teachers for ten years. His activities also include laying Stumbling Stones, organizing guided tours for schoolchildren and meeting Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Since 2007, he has organized the annual Holocaust Memorial Day in Ober-Ramstadt, which is designed by young people.
Anja Listmann
Anja Listmann (Hosenfeld, Hesse) worked as a teacher in Fulda until 2017 and has been the “Representative for Jewish Life” in Fulda since June 2021. She initiated programs for schoolchildren that conveyed the history of Jewish life in her town and the stories of Jewish individuals, and also organized a school exchange with Petach-Tikvah in Israel. Since 2012, Listmann has been organizing commemorative events to mark the deportations from Fulda and Kristallnacht. At the same time, she launched the website juden-in-fulda.org in 2017. She has been campaigning for the restoration of Jewish sites in Fulda for many years and publishes brochures about these places. In 2018 and 2023, she helped to organize international meetings of former Jewish residents and their descendants in Fulda.
Petra Michalski
Petra Michalski (Berlin): Since 2010, she has been telling school classes the story of her husband, Franz Michalski, who is now deceased: Mr. Michalski's family hid near Alexanderplatz in Berlin before fleeing from Breslau at the end of 1944 and going into hiding until the end of the war. The Silent Heroes Memorial in Berlin has been commemorating the Michalski family's story of persecution and flight since 2008.
Augen auf e. V. Oberlausitz
Augen auf e. V. Oberlausitz (Zittau, Saxony): Founded in 2000, the association is committed to combating right-wing extremism, right-wing populism, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Its goals include strengthening democratic awareness, supporting civic participation and combating prejudice. A key part of its mission is the expansion and maintenance of social networking and the implementation of youth and cultural projects with an educational focus. It promotes social interaction between people of different nationalities by organizing sporting events, cultural festivals and educational programs at schools. Further information can be found at: www.augenauf.net.
Schalker Fan-Initiative e.V.
Schalker Fan-Initiative e.V. (Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia): Focusing mainly on soccer fans, the association has been working on a voluntary basis against racism, antisemitism and all forms of discrimination since 1992 at Schalke and in Gelsenkirchen, in close connection with the Jewish community. Since the 1990s, it has been involved in remembrance work and actively educates local citizens about the history of National Socialism with the working group “Laufend erinnern” (“Running Memory”). With readings, film evenings, discussions, lectures, workshops and soccer matches, it campaigns for integration and against racism. The association's network includes “Fairness United - for human rights in soccer.” Dr. Susanne Franke is a long-standing board member of the association, which currently has around 400 members throughout Germany. Further information can be found at: www.fan-ini.com
Widen the Circle confronts long-standing injustice rooted in racism, antisemitism, and attacks on historic memory and democratic values in Germany and the U.S. We empower local remembrance activists who expose legacies of persecution and use the lessons of history to bring communities together and promote healing. Along with the Obermayer Awards, the organization has two other programs: The Widen the Circle Network in Germany brings together community activists engaged in powerful projects that use remembrance to fight modern prejudice. Widen the Circle’s Berlin Fellowship empowers American activists who are dealing with important issues involving remembrance and historic injustice, and connects them with their counterparts in our German network.
The Obermayer Awards were established in 2000 by Dr. Arthur S. Obermayer (1931-2016), a multifaceted American entrepreneur and philanthropist, and his wife Dr. Judith H. Obermayer. The annual award ceremony in Berlin is financially and organizationally supported by the Berlin House of Representatives. The Leo Baeck Institute (New York) is a co-sponsor. At WidentheCircle.org, you will find information about the awards as well as portraits of the award winners from previous years.