Original language: German
Dear friends of Anne Klein,
Dear Nivedita Prasad,
Dear Birgit Rommelspacher,
Dear Markus Lönig,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear guests,
Anne Klein would have turned 62 today. A year ago, Anne invited her closest friends to the Darß Peninsula to celebrate. It was surely a joyful celebration. In high spirits, with clarity and great determination—qualities that defined her entire life—she brought her vision for the Anne Klein Women’s Prize to fruition shortly before her death in April 2011.
In January 2011, I first heard about Anne’s idea to link the award with the Heinrich Böll Foundation. I was aware of her decades-long commitment to women’s rights, though we did not know each other personally. I was determined to find out who Anne was and what personal and political message she wanted to convey through the Anne Klein Women’s Prize.
It was important to me that Anne know that her magnificent donation for an annual women’s prize at the Heinrich Böll Foundation is perfectly aligned with and in good hands within her feminist vision. I tried to convey to her as much as possible about our shared passion for women’s rights and gender equality, for sexual self-determination, and for women’s political participation.
Together with the jury selected by Anne—Renate Künast, Michaele Schreyer, Thomas Herrendorf, and Jutta Wagner—I feel that I am acting as Anne’s trustee, aiming to provide concrete support through this award for courageous and outstanding political initiatives for women’s rights.
For decades, Anne devoted all her energy to advocating for women’s rights, combating violence against women, promoting the recognition of same-sex partnerships, and opposing all forms of discrimination. Anne always knew that social change comes through political activism and pressure from the grassroots. She was a key figure in the Berlin and national German women’s movement.
Engaging in politics and shifting power dynamics in favor of women were among her greatest passions. The Senate Committee on Women’s Affairs during the “Berlin Women’s Spring” in the late 1980s was—and I quote from an article in the weekly newspaper Freitag—“a long-term experiment in the realm of women and power”—including for Anne as a female senator.
Eliminating injustice, ensuring access to justice, and shaping legislation—these were undoubtedly Anne’s greatest concerns. She was a lawyer through and through. With all the energy of a lawyer, she, together with many fellow activists, began to change legislation and legal practice to combat injustice and discrimination against women in Germany.
In her eulogy for Anne Klein, Jutta Wagner said:
“Recognizing discrimination does not automatically mean standing up against it and fighting it. Anne Klein did just that.”
But Anne was also always focused on providing concrete help and support in the here and now for women and girls who are victims of violence and humiliation. Together with fellow activists, she founded Berlin’s first women’s shelter and the first feminist legal counseling center in Kreuzberg. Practical counseling and shelter for women and girls, financial support for projects like Wildwasser, the founding of the Berlin Girls’ Shelter—the list of her very concrete, practical commitment to women in extremely difficult life situations is long.
Standing up, getting involved, bringing about change—these were the hallmarks of Anne Klein’s life and work. That is why I admire her. And I thank her from the bottom of my heart for her generous donation to us. It is a special privilege to be able to honor women from Germany and around the world for their feminist commitment in the future under her name.
And the jury has found a wonderful first recipient of the Anne Klein Women’s Award: Nivedita Prasad. Anne Klein—and I believe I can say this here—would be delighted with this recipient. And—something the jury truly did not know—they had actually crossed paths in their shared struggle against violence against women and girls, against trafficking in women, and against racism.
Nivedita Prasad worked at the Berlin Girls’ Shelter, which Anne co-founded, and has been a staff member of “Ban Ying”—the Counseling and Coordination Center Against Human Trafficking—for many years. Anne Klein supported the founding of Ban Ying.
Let me say here, on behalf of the jury, what moved us from the bottom of our hearts to name Nivedita Prasad as the first recipient of the Anne Klein Women’s Prize:
She has been fighting for women’s and human rights, and against human trafficking and discrimination, for many years. She brings human rights violations and injustices against women to light. She fights against racism and violence against migrant women. Through her work at the Ban Ying counseling center, Nivedita Prasad provides concrete help to women affected by violence and human trafficking.
But she is not content to stop there. She is not a lawyer like Anne, but she helps ensure that criminal prosecutions are carried out and advances legislative efforts. Known nationwide is the attempt to prosecute a diplomat who treated an Indonesian domestic worker like a slave at the embassy in Germany. How can this man, who enjoys diplomatic immunity, be prosecuted? How can the victim obtain justice and at least receive financial compensation? This is what drives Nivedita Prasad, and she will hopefully soon be making legal history in Karlsruhe and at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
And what has also impressed us about Ms. Prasad, aside from all this pioneering work, is the way she links her practical experience with conceptual and theoretical frameworks regarding what new prevention models should look like and how social work education must be grounded in human rights principles.
The Anne Klein Women’s Prize goes to a brilliant, wonderful woman with an eventful life story. To a woman who fights tenaciously and passionately against injustice toward women and against racism; to a woman brimming with political and conceptual ideas, who is already actively considering what political initiatives she wants to launch with a portion of the prize money. But she’ll tell us more about that later.
Beyond the award itself, we will support Nivedita and her initiatives wherever possible.
Just like Anne Klein, Nivedita Prasad doesn’t just recognize discrimination—she takes action and, in doing so, changes the world. Intelligent, courageous, fearless—Anne Klein would have liked that.
Thank you very much!
