Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for PD Dr Annegret Schüle

"We warmly congratulate Annegret Schüle on this very special award," says Professor Walter Bauer-Wabnegg, President of the University of Erfurt. "Annegret Schüle has been associated with our university for a long time: Since 2002, she has been researching the history of the Erfurt company J. A. Topf & Sons and has published, among other things, the monograph "Industry and Holocaust. Topf & Sons – Builders of the Auschwitz Ovens", for which she completed her habilitation at the University of Erfurt in 2012. She now teaches at our Department of History. With a large number of publications, lectures, exhibitions and projects, she has a considerable oeuvre of activities in the academic environment. Her work sets standards in academic research on National Socialist social crimes and Jewish history – for a discursive culture of remembrance and innovative educational and mediation work. We are pleased and grateful that Annegret Schüle is part of our university family and that she enriches not only research, but above all teaching at the Department of History with her academic findings."

Thanks to PD Dr. Annegret Schüle, the Topf & Söhne – Die Ofenbauer von Auschwitz (Topf & Sons – The Oven Builders of Auschwitz) memorial site in Erfurt is not only a place of remembrance, but above all a living learning space where school classes, students and teachers can experience history up close and personal, and where the guilt of the past is translated into responsibility for the present. In his laudatory speech, Minister President Mario Voigt emphasised that the importance of this remembrance work is also sustainable democracy work.

For Annegret Schüle, the Topf & Söhne memorial site, which was fought for against resistance, is an example of how socially relevant historical research can be: ‘It was the historical sources that first shook the political leaders in the city more than 20 years ago, who had been reluctant to confront the role of J. A. Topf & Söhne in the Holocaust.’ The recognition of her work, Schüle continued, ‘strengthens a culture of remembrance of Nazi injustice, in which scholarship, education and commitment to democracy and human rights are inseparable.’

PD Dr Annegret Schüle shapes contemporary remembrance culture through her educational and outreach work, both as a lecturer and as director of the Topf & Söhne memorial site. In August, at the request of the Faculty of Philosophy, she was appointed honorary professor for her academic and knowledge-based achievements and for strengthening the ties between the University of Erfurt and the city's community. This winter semester, she is once again offering a course on forced labour under National Socialism, using the exemplary case of Topf & Söhne.