Anne Kwaschik’s book is an intellectual biography of the Alsatian cultural historian and essayist Robert Minder (1902–1980). The book is the first comprehensive account of the life and work of Minder. During his lifetime Minder was one of the major cultural mediators between Germany and France and one of the pioneers in Franco-German reconciliation after World War II. The book was also selected for being a contribution to the history of mentalities because it raises fundamental issues of attitudes and patterns in Franco-German perceptions. In 2007 Anne Kwaschik’s dissertation on Robert Minder was awarded the Friedrich Meinecke Prize.

Anne Kwaschik studied modern history, modern German literature, and philosophy in Zurich and Berlin. She earned her doctorate in 2006 from Freie Universität. After working as a research assistant at the Technical University of Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin, she later worked in Paris as an associate researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and as a DAAD lecturer at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales/Centre interdisciplinaire d’études et de recherches allemandes. In the fall of 2009 she accepted an appointment as a junior professor at Freie Universität.

The prix parlementaire franco-allemand was established on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, or the Treaty of Friendship, concluded by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer in 1963. The French national parliament (Assemblée nationale) and the German parliament (Bundestag) have been presenting the award biennially since 2004. The award is given for outstanding academic work dealing with France and Germany in the legal, economic, social, political sciences or the humanities that improves mutual understanding between the two countries. The award is valued at 10,000 euros. Two awards, which go respectively to a German and a French citizen, are presented at a joint meeting of the two parliamentary boards. On the French side this year Evelyn und Victor Brandt are being honored for their book Aujourd’hui l’Allemagne (Germany Today).

Anne Kwaschik is the second professor from Freie Universität to be honored with the prix parlementaire franco-allemand / deutsch-französischer Parlamentspreis. In 2006 it went to the art historian Martin Schieder for his book Im Blick des anderen – Die deutsch-französischen Kunstbeziehungen 1945–1959.

For further Information, please contact:

• Prof. Anne Kwaschik, Junior Professor of Western European History, Center for French Studies, Freie Universität, Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 838-50462, Email: a.kwaschik@fu-berlin.de