Hungarian Philosopher Receives Goethe Medal

Archív / 2010. július 2.

Ágnes Heller

?The Goethe-Institut is awarding the Hungarian philosopher Ágnes Heller with the Goethe Medal for her life?s work, which encompasses over forty books. They reflect her own biography, which was powerfully shaped by the momentous history of the twentieth century: the barbarism of National Socialism ? to which her father fell victim and she only narrowly escaped ?, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 as well as opposition among the intellectual circles of the ?Budapest School.? In her writing, the favourite pupil of noteworthy Marxist literary historian György Lukács seeks out dialogue with the great philosophical forerunners Kant, Nietzsche, Aristotle, Shakespeare and Kierkegaard. The large number of her publications translated into German reflects the significance of her work for German-Hungarian cultural relations, going far beyond the field of philosophy,? the Goethe Institute said.

The institute is also presenting Goethe medals this year to the Lebanese poet and philosopher Fuad Rifkin and the American researcher John M Spalek.

Past Hungarian recipients of the medal include the composer György Ligeti, the Nobel Prize-winning writer Imre Kertész and the writer and poet Dezső Tandori.

Until 2008, the awards ceremony was held on March 22, the anniversary of the death of Goethe, but since 2009, it takes place on August 28, Goethe's birthday.

Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)