Anneke de Rudder receives 2024 Obermayer Award

Anneke de Rudder receives the 2024 Obermayer Award for her work as a provenance researcher in the field of Nazi-looted property. She currently works at the Hamburg State and University Library and has spent many years conducting extensive research into the lives of Jews in Lüneburg and elsewhere. Her work is focused on the restitution of Nazi-looted property to the rightful heirs of the victims of Nazi persecution. Anneke de Rudder was commissioned by Museum Lüneburg to identify almost 60 heirs of a once prominent Jewish citizen of Lüneburg, Marcus Heinemann, for example; in collaboration with one of his descendants she jointly organised a restitution ceremony that was attended by several dozen descendants. She is also working on building a digital database with names, dates, stories and photographs of Lüneburg’s Jewish families which will be available to descendants, citizens and researchers worldwide.

Anneke de Rudder is currently working on a project in the special collections of the Hamburg State and University Library that is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation.

The German Lost Art Foundation congratulates Anneke de Rudder on receiving the award. The ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. on 29 January at the Rotes Rathaus at the invitation of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, and the President of the Berlin House of Representatives, Cornelia Seibeld. Follow the award ceremony via live stream here: https://widenthecircle.org/de/obermayer-awards/watch

Organised and administered by Widen the Circle, the Obermayer Awards are presented to German individuals and groups who have demonstrated the key role that the Jewish population played in German society for hundreds of years prior to the Nazi era. The Awards also recognise the commitment of people who, drawing on the lessons of history, are dedicated to combating prejudice and racism (including anti-Semitism) and promoting understanding between different groups in order to counter the emergence and increasing spread of prejudice. Established more than two decades ago, the Obermayer Awards are a prestigious distinction.