Hannah Arendt Prize 2025 for Seyla Benhabib – Recognition of Alexei Gorinov
Bremen, November 17, 2025 – The Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought 2025 is awarded to the internationally renowned political philosopher Prof. Dr. Seyla Benhabib. She is recognized as an outstanding political and philosophical intellectual who makes central political challenges of our time the starting point of her theoretical analyses: be it migration, feminism, political affiliation, or international conflicts. She does not limit herself to theoretical writings but fearlessly engages in public debates. Where others tend to escalate tensions and harden opposites, she draws attention to nuances and considers the diversity of perspectives. With her thinking without a banister (Hannah Arendt), Benhabib remains independent in her judgment – a judgment that incorporates the various perspectives of others and thus opens spaces for further discourse, especially in heated societal debates. She combines Critical Theory, feminist theory, and cosmopolitanism with the writings of Hannah Arendt into an independent perspective in political theory.
The jury also takes this year’s award ceremony as an occasion to give special recognition to the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Gorinov. His example stands for a political thinking based on integrity and courage. Where other forms of resistance are hardly possible, moral resistance gives central concepts like freedom and human rights new meaning; people like Gorinov understand the value of these concepts and restore their weight and significance. The general public should therefore learn about Gorinov’s resistance.
The Hannah Arendt Prize ceremony for Seyla Benhabib will take place on December 9, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in Bremen City Hall, in the Upper Town Hall Hall. The prize, endowed with
€10,000, is sponsored by the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The laudation will be given by the philosopher Prof. Dr. Dieter Thomä.
Hannah Arendt Prize 2025 for Seyla Benhabib to be accompanied by a symposium On December 10, starting at 10:00 a.m., Prof. Benhabib will participate in the symposium “The Future of Democracy in Authoritarian Times” at the Bamberger Haus in Bremen.
Among others, the symposium will include the political theorist and philosopher Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst as well as the legal scholar Dr. Dana Schmalz.
Registrations for the award ceremony can be made via this link: Hier anmelden Registrations for the symposium can be made via this link: Hier anmelden
Contact for inquiries:For questions, the chairperson of the association, Prof. Dr. Waltraud Meints-Stender, is available at: Waltraud.Meints-Stender@hs-niederrhein.de
Homepage of the association with further information: Hannah-Arendt-Verein
https://www.philomag.de/archives/85-philosophie-magazin-1-2026
https://taz.de/Hannah-Arendt-Preis-fuer-Seyla-Benhabib/!6130637/
