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Award winners Max Teske and Laura Nickel in Cottbus
Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP
The teachers Max Teske and Laura Nickel are awarded the "Prize for Civil Courage – Against Right-Wing Radicalism, Anti-Semitism and Racism" in Berlin. The Friends of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe will award the prize, which is endowed with 4000 euros, as the organizers announced in advance.
"It's simply a duty when you recognize grievances to address them," Teske said in an interview with the German Press Agency. "And I think that we chose the right path at the time, with all the consequences that we experienced. I would do it again and again."
Among others, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), the chairman of Berlin's Jewish Community, Gideon Joffe, and journalist Anne Will are expected to attend the award ceremony on Thursday.
Together with his colleague at the time, Laura Nickel, Teske had described in an initially anonymous letter in April how they were confronted with right-wing extremism, sexism and homophobia on a daily basis at the school in Burg, Brandenburg. They were then subjected to hostility from the right and disgusted out of school. The pastor Lukas Pellio from Spremberg (Spree-Neiße) will also be awarded. The two teachers and Pastor Pellio are honored "for their courageous commitment against right-wing extremism" and for the founding of the alliance "School for More Democracy".
"For me, the award means a lot, because of course it's an acknowledgement that you've publicly addressed something in a region that people don't like to hear," said Teske. He was pleased to accept the award on behalf of all those who had been involved in southern Brandenburg.
The award ceremony will be presented at a fundraising dinner. Money will be collected for the "Room of Names" project, which documents biographies of victims of the Holocaust.
lpz/dpa