Prof. Dr Michael Borgolte
"I see this award as a tribute to all those who worked with me to establish the Berlin Institute of Islamic Theology. The awarding of this prize is further proof of the importance the Presidium of the HU attaches to this project."
Prof Michael Borgolte, Professor of Medieval History at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin since 1991, was responsible for the establishment of the Berlin Institute of Islamic Theology, first as founding commissioner and then as founding director, and implemented it in a very short space of time. Freshly retired, he was entrusted with the task by President Sabine Kunst in 2017. The first students were enrolled in autumn 2019 and came to study at Hannoversche Stra?e 6, the former forensic medicine building at Charité.
Prof Dr Johannes Helmrath, Professor of Medieval History with a special focus on the late Middle Ages, has been teaching at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin since 1997. In September 2018, he took on the role of Founding Director of the Central Institute for Catholic Theology in addition to his existing duties as a professor. One year, five appointment procedures and one set of study regulations later, teaching was able to begin in the institute building at Hannoversche Stra?e 6 - the former forensic medicine building - in the 2019/20 winter semester.
Voices on the award ceremony
Prof. Dr Sabine Kunst, President of Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin:
"With you, dear Mr Borgolte, dear Mr Helmrath - this was palpable in every one of our conversations - the future can be shaped with you. The successful research and teaching programmes at ICT and BIT are impressive testimony to this. Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin would like to thank you for your great commitment as founding directors of the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology and the Central Institute for Catholic Theology. On behalf of the university community, I award you the Humboldt-Universit?t Medal for your special services to the Alma Mater Berolinensis."
Prof Dr Gabriele Metzler, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities
"Michael Borgolte and Johannes Helmrath never hesitated when it came to taking on responsibility at the university. Both were Directors of the Department of History, and during Michael Borgolte's tenure as Dean, the Faculty also dared to appoint the first woman since the 1990s, while Johannes Helmrath played a decisive role in the University Senate for many semesters. The number of appointment committees and other faculty committees in which they have been involved, contributing their experience and their eye for "efficiency", is large. And so I was not at all surprised that both were prepared to take on the tasks entrusted to them by the President as founding directors of two theological institutes."
Annette Schavan, former Federal Minister of Education and Research:
"Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin has taken a pioneering step with the founding of the two Central Institutes for Islamic Theology and Catholic Theology. This, together with the Faculty of Protestant Theology (which has simply been called the Faculty of Theology since its beginnings) and the Institute of Jewish Theology in Potsdam, has created the conditions for working on important joint research questions, for cooperation and for the development of an interactive theology. This is a major step forward at a time when religious homelessness is growing, as is religious fanaticism, when impulses are being sought beyond previous paradigms that promise more sustainability than what we have known so far and in which fragility and uncertainty determine everyday life more than we would like."
About the Humboldt-Universit?ts-Medaille
This award honours public figures and academics who have rendered outstanding services to Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin.