Margherita von Brentano Prize 2025: Most valuable award for gender research!

Margherita von Brentano Prize 2025: Most valuable award for gender research!

On July 1, 2025, it was announced that the Margherita von Brentano Prize 2025 of the Free University of Berlin would be awarded to the Department of History Didactics and the student translation collective for Romance studies. [fu-berlin.de] reports that this prize, which is awarded every two years, is awarded by a presidential committee for outstanding achievements in gender research or equality. With prize money of 15,000 euros, it is one of the most highly endowed funding prizes in Germany in this area. The award ceremony is scheduled for autumn 2025.

The Department of History Didactics was recognized with the prize for its efforts to make gender and sexual diversity, particularly queer history, visible. Innovative formats such as the Queer History Lab are used to train prospective teachers. Through its comprehensive teaching, research and support of young female scientists, the department has made a significant contribution to the visibility of diversity and has thus made a name for itself.

Social Issues Award

The student translation collective led by Manuela Barney Seidel will also be honored. It translated the short story “Soñarán en el jardín” by Gabriela Damian Miravete into German and used it to address important social issues such as femicide. This translation will be published in a book publication, which also includes interviews, forewords and graphic designs. This prestigious award underlines the relevance of the projects in feminist research and raising awareness of social problems.

The Margherita von Brentano Prize is named after an important woman at the university. Margherita von Brentano, who lived from 1922 to 1995, was the first vice president of the Free University of Berlin and a pioneer in promoting gender equality within academia. As a philosophy professor and habilitation candidate with Wilhelm Weischedel, she worked to overcome discrimination against women at universities and brought the question of gender distribution in science to the fore. [bcp.fu-berlin.de] pointed out that the prize has been awarded every two years since it was first awarded in 1995.

Previous award winners and their achievements

• 2021: Datenbankprojekt „Feminizidmap“
• 2019: Initiative „Medical Students for Choice“
• 2017: Forschungsgruppe „Frauen und Flucht“
• 2006: Rechtsanwältin Seyran Ateş

The awards go to individuals or projects that have distinguished themselves in the advancement of women and gender studies. [Wissenschaft.de] emphasizes the importance of making queer history and other marginalized topics visible, as such research approaches innovatively enrich social discourses about gender and identity.

Margherita von Brentano remains an important figure in German scientific history to this day. Her work and her commitment to the equality of women in the academic world continue to provide inspiration and challenges for the further development of gender studies today.