Hermann Parzinger receives the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Press release from 09/25/2012
On 4 October, Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, will receive the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The award is presented to him personally by Federal President Joachim Gauck.
In its tribute, the Office of the Federal President said of Parzinger: "In his important offices, Hermann Parzinger has a special understanding of how to work worldwide for the preservation of the cultural heritage of mankind, to strengthen research activities and to bring art, culture and human history to life for a broad public. He himself has remained a productive and highly respected archaeologist with spectacular finds and continues to pursue his central research interests: the emergence of nomadic equestrian life and culture and the formation of elites in prehistoric and early historical societies."
Hermann Parzinger has been President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, one of the world's largest cultural institutions, since March 2008. After completing his doctorate in archaeology and history in 1985, he initially worked as a university assistant at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After his habilitation, he was the second director of the Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute in Frankfurt/Main from 1990, and then the first director of the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin from 1995. From 2003 to 2008, Parzinger was President of the German Archaeological Institute. He has also been a private lecturer at various universities since 1991. Hermann Parzinger has also led numerous excavations in Spain, Turkey, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan and Mongolia. The discoveries of a Scythian princely tomb with almost 6000 gold objects in 2001 and the ice mummy of a Scythian warrior in the Altai in 2006 also made him famous beyond the specialist world.
In 1998, Parzinger was the first archaeologist to receive the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation. In 2009, he was awarded the "Order of Friendship", the highest Russian honour for foreign citizens, by the then Russian President Medvedev. He has been a member of the Order Pour le mérite for Sciences and Arts since 2011. He is also a member of numerous academies in Russia, China, Spain, Great Britain, Romania, the USA and Germany, including the British Academy and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1951 by Federal President Theodor Heuss to "visibly express recognition and gratitude to deserving men and women of the German people and abroad". The Order of Merit is awarded at eight different levels. The honours are usually presented by the heads of state governments, federal or state ministers, district presidents, district administrators or mayors. Only in a few cases does the Federal President himself present them. With his personal medals, the Federal President wishes to draw the public's attention to achievements that he considers particularly significant. This takes place on the occasion of the Day of German Unity and the Day of Honour.
Further information:
www.bundespraesident.de/Ordensverleihung
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