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Karl-Christ-Prize for Ancient History

Laureate 2021: Prof. Dr. Klaus Hallof

(Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

The Karl-Christ-Prize, endowed with 25,000 euros and dedicated to the memory of Karl Christ, who held the Chair of Ancient History at the University of Marburg from 1965 to 1988, will be awarded for the fifth time in 2021. The prize is awarded every two years for outstanding academic achievements in the field of ancient history and neighbouring disciplines as well as the history of humanities and classical reception. It is presented alternately at the universities of Frankfurt a.M. and Bern, where Karl Christ's scholarship is being continued.

This year's laureate is Prof. Dr. Klaus Hallof (BBAW), who was nominated by a large number of prominent researchers from the German-speaking world and internationally. Klaus Hallof is a brilliant epigraphist who has devoted his entire research career to the collection of Greek inscriptions at the Berlin Academy, the Inscriptiones Graecae. Even under the difficult conditions of the GDR, he carried out groundbreaking work and defended his intellectual independence. As an excellent scholar and successful project leader, he made the Inscriptiones Graecae into a flagship project of the Berlin Academy after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Klaus Hallof continues in the steps of the most important representatives of his field: August Böckh, Theodor Mommsen, and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. He does not pursue Greek epigraphy in an ivory tower, but communicates it to a wider audience, for instance through online translation of original inscriptions. Finally, he has repeatedly turned to the history of his discipline, thereby continuing Karl Christ's research on the history of classical scholarship.

Due to the pandemic, the award ceremony will not take place until the 2nd of April 2022 at the University of Frankfurt a.M. A separate invitation will be sent out early next year.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Rebenich, Universität Bern, Historisches Institut, Länggassstrasse 49, CH – 3012 Bern, stefan.rebenich@hist.unibe.ch.