Ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel receives Hermann Ehlers Prize

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was awarded the Hermann Ehlers Prize in Kiel on Thursday evening (1 October). Prime Minister Daniel Günther gave the eulogy. With a ceremonial award ceremony in Kiel Castle, former Chancellor Angela Merkel received the same prize from the Hermann Ehlers Foundation, which is close to the CDU. The award honors "an outstanding stateswoman who has decisively shaped the fate of Germany and Europe for decades and assumed political responsibility in times of profound change," the foundation explains its decision.

Daniel Günther praises former Chancellor Merkel's party colleague, Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther: "At the head of the Federal Government, you have given weight and stability to our liberal democracy in a stable Europe," said Daniel Günther. He also praised Merkel as a great stateswoman, a convinced European and a longtime Chancellor, "who has led our country through many challenges." The Hermann Ehlers Prize is awarded in memory of the former President of the German Bundestag, Hermann Ehlers. The award honours personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the liberal-democratic basic order, the common good and the strengthening of parliamentary culture. Laureates were former prime ministers and boxers The prize has been awarded since 1975.

Ehlers was President of the Bundestag from 1950 until his death in 1954. The prize has already been awarded to former Federal President Joachim Gauck (1996), Schleswig-Holstein's former Prime Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg (1999) and boxer and politician Vitali Klitschko (2014).