Urania Medal for Annette and Rüdiger Nehberg (2015)

The Urania Medal. It has been around for 27 years. Men such as Richard von Weizsäcker and Hans Dietrich Genscher have been awarded it. On April 21, 2015, Annette and Rüdiger Nehberg received this honor at the Urania in Berlin. Former German President Horst Köhler honored their work with a laudatory speech.

"Annette and Rüdiger Nehberg receive the Urania Medal for their unparalleled commitment to the human rights of the most vulnerable people on earth," reads the certificate, signed by Dr. Jutta Semler, Chairwoman of the Urania Board of Directors. "Both make us realize what great results the commitment of each individual can lead to for the good of mankind if this commitment is made with the whole personality and the community with like-minded people is sought and developed."

The laudatory speech was held by former Federal President Prof. Dr. Horst Köhler. In his very personal and humorous speech, he paid particular tribute to the commitment to humanity and co-creation. TARGET had brought together coalitions that at first glance would have seemed completely unlikely. "The Nehbergs have achieved that the highest clerics of Islam have declared the custom of female genital mutilation to be what it must be in every religion and every civilized society: a crime to be punished."

Bärbel Dieckmann, President of Welthungerhilfe, emphasized the "new structures" that we have created with strength and courage. "You have tackled things that seemed impossible to solve. And you have set something in motion that you can no longer go back on."

Berlin's Mayor Dilek Kolat appreciated the short period of only 15 years TARGET has been in existence, in which the basis for change has been created. "You have achieved something that the UN and other large organizations have not succeeded in doing."