Pénélope Léa Patry Receives Willy-Brandt-Preis für Zeitgeschichte 2023

The Board of Trustees of the Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung has awarded Pénélope Léa Patry the Willy-Brandt-Preis für Zeitgeschichte 2023. The French Germanist is being honored for her dissertation “Willy Brandts frühe Europavorstellungen aus dem skandinavischen Exil (1933-1947): Entstehung und Ausformung eines außenpolitischen Bewusstseins zwischen Internationalismus und Europäismus”.

According to the unanimous opinion of the selection committee, Pénélope Léa Patry’s work deals with the work and legacy of Willy Brandt in an outstanding quality. What should also be emphasized is the comprehensive integration of the current state of research on Willy Brandt’s ideas about Europe and the diversity of the sources examined. Ms. Patry originally locates her study in a sociological derivation of the history of ideas, which bases her analysis in a historical contextualization of the texts, social and political affiliations and linguistic aspects of Brandt’s ideas about Europe.

“We are very pleased to be able to honor a work with such a direct connection toWilly Brandt this year. “Pénélope Léa Patry is making a significant contribution to understanding Brandt’s concepts of Europe,” says Wolfram Hoppenstedt, Director of the Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung.

Every two years, the Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung honors outstanding academic work with the Willy-Brandt-Preis für Zeitgeschichte that either deals directly with the work and legacy of Willy Brandt or with a chapter of contemporary history that bears his name and political life. The award ceremony will take place on February 22, 2024 in the Forum Willy Brandt Berlin.

Pénélope L. Patry studied at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. In 2012 she received the agrégation (license to teach at higher schools) in German. Her now award-winning dissertation was created as part of a binational doctorate at the University of Lyon (E.N.S. de Lyon) and the University of Oslo.