Anetta Kahane

Anetta Kahane is Chairwoman of the Board of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. She grew up in East Berlin and worked as a Latin American scholar in the GDR. As the first and only Commissioner for Foreigners of the Magistrate of East Berlin, she emphatically warned of the dangers of right-wing extremism. In 1991, she founded RAA e.V. for the new federal states (Regional Offices for Education, Integration and Democracy) and set up 22 branch offices of the institution. As managing director, she was involved in democratisation processes at schools and in intercultural pedagogy, among other things. In 1991, together with other personalities such as Joachim Gauck, she received the Theodor Heuss Medal on behalf of the peaceful revolution and self-liberation of the former GDR. In 1998, Kahane founded the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and was Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Since 2003, she has been the full-time chairwoman of the foundation. Through promoting, advising and networking, the foundation strengthens democratic culture and, thus, has contributed to the nationwide development of a civil society that works against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism. Since the foundation was established, it has supported more than 1300 initiatives and projects. Anetta Kahane is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Theodor Heuss Foundation. In the summer of 2002, Kahane was awarded the Moses Mendelssohn Prize of the State of Berlin for her efforts in intercultural understanding and education, the containment of right-wing extremist violence and the fight against racism, youth violence and intolerance. On behalf of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, she received the Joseph Ben Issachar Süßkind-Oppenheimer Award of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg and the Israelitische Religionsgemeinschaft Württemberg (Jewish Religious Community of Württemberg) for her outstanding commitment against hostility to minorities and against prejudices in science and journalism, which was awarded for the first time in 2015. In 2016, the Association of German Criminal Investigators awarded the foundation the Order of Merit Bul le Mérite for its commitment against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism.

As of March 2019.