The Margherita von Brentano Prize 2025 from Freie Universität Berlin was awarded in equal parts to the Department of History Didactics and the student translation collective of Romance Studies. With this biennial award, the university's executive board honors individuals or projects for achievements in gender studies or equality. With a sum of 15,000 euros, it is one of the most highly endowed sponsorship awards in the field of gender studies or equality in Germany. 

Freie Universität Berlin honored the Department of History Didactics for its outstanding commitment to raising awareness of gender and sexual diversity, particularly with regard to queer history in academia. In recent years, the Department of History Didactics at Freie Universität Berlin has succeeded in making a substantial contribution to raising awareness of gender and sexual diversity through its above-average commitment to teaching, research, and early-career support. Innovative formats such as the Queer History Lab teach the subject to prospective teachers. As part of several research projects, including a subproject on the gay rights movement and the legal system of the Federal Republic of Germany within the DFG research group “Law – Gender – Collectivity,” the department has significantly expanded knowledge of queer history and its relevance and communicated it to a broader public with numerous partners in the field.

The student translation collective was honored for its outstanding commitment to raising awareness of feminicide, its scientifically innovative and international approach to this pressing social issue, and its contribution to feminist knowledge production and memory culture. The translation collective, consisting of a total of 19 people led by Manuela Barney Seidel, a research assistant in Romance philology, collectively translated the short story “Soñarán en el jardín” by Mexican author Gabriela Damian Miravete into German as part of a BA seminar. The student group dealt intensively with the topic of feminicide addressed in the story on a theoretical, literary, and practical translation level, and published the jointly developed translation in an attractive book publication including an interview with the author, an extensive and substantial foreword, and graphic designs.

Program

Welcoming

Prof. Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott
Vice President of Freie Universität Berlin

Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar
Professor of Political Science with a focus on Gender and Diversity, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, Free University of Berlin

Awarding of the prize to:

• the work area Didactics of History  

     Laudatio: Prof. Dr. Hedwig Richter

• the student translation collective of Romance Studies

     Laudatio: Prof. Dr. Anita Traninger

Words of Thanks

Work Area Didactics of History  
Student translation collective of Romance Studies

Musical Closing
Birgitta Flick (saxophone)
Esther Kaiser (vocal)

Reception
20h