“Through creative, participatory and inclusive approaches, Petra Anders opens up diverse avenues for engaging with educational issues and strengthens the dialogue between the university and society far beyond the higher education context,” stated the jury of the Open Humboldt Award in explaining its choice of the Professor of Primary School German Didactics. In her research and teaching, she develops participatory formats that involve children, young people, students and teachers as active contributors.
About the award winner
Petra Anders studied German, History and Philosophy in Göttingen and Vienna and worked as a secondary school teacher in Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg and Hamburg. In 2010, she obtained her PhD from the University of Bremen. Following posts at Columbia University, New York, USA, and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), she was a professor at the University of Leipzig and at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is Chair of Symposion Deutschdidaktik e.V., the largest professional association for German language teaching, a member of the board of the Berlin-based Stapel Foundation, and a member of the advisory board of VisionKino.
Her research focus is on inclusive German language teaching, children’s and young adult literature, performative and aesthetic educational processes, and linguistic and cultural participation. In 2022, she received the HU’s ‘Prize for Good Teaching’, which recognises successful and innovative teachers and teaching concepts within the context of regular teaching at the HU. In 2025, she was awarded the Communicator Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for her outstanding science communication in promoting reading and language skills at primary level and her commitment to fostering dialogue with diverse target groups.
Petra Anders has championed poetry slam in schools, academia and teaching; she founded the ‘Praxisschock-Slam’ and the ‘Kinder-Kiez-Slam’ at HU, and has been editing an academic collection on the history and current state of poetry slam since 2025. In her latest project, ‘Anders geFragt’, guests from the worlds of academia, education, politics and society discuss the collaboration between research and society together with the audience.
Open Humboldt Award
The Open Humboldt Award is presented by the Humboldt-Universität Foundation in collaboration with the Fritz and Mocca Metzeler Foundation and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The award recognises projects that make academic topics and questions accessible to a broad public beyond the university context and strengthen the exchange between academia and society. Only members of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are eligible to apply. The prize will be awarded for the first time in 2026 and is intended to be presented annually. The award ceremony will take place on 2 November 2026.