Merkel warns against division as Leipzig presents Mendelssohn awards

Angela Merkel used her acceptance of the International Mendelssohn Prize in Leipzig to warn against political attempts to divide society into competing groups. The former German chancellor received the 2026 Europe award at the Gewandhaus on November 1, while composer and clarinettist Jörg Widmann was recognised in the music category.

Merkel challenged rhetoric that separates ordinary citizens from supposed elites, or treats established residents and more recent arrivals as fundamentally different kinds of people. Her argument placed equal citizenship at the centre of the occasion.

She referred to Germans with different life histories, including those shaped by former East Germany and those who had arrived from Syria. The point was that citizenship and democratic participation should not be ranked according to such backgrounds.

The speech brought a contemporary political question into an award ceremony associated with Mendelssohn’s cultural legacy. Rather than treating European identity as a ceremonial phrase, Merkel framed it through the practical problem of how a society speaks about its own members.

Widmann’s music award provided the ceremony’s artistic counterpart. His recognition and Merkel’s Europe prize were distinct honours within the same event, and the music award was not endowed with a cash payment.

The occasion therefore combined two forms of public contribution: musical achievement and a statement about civic coexistence. Merkel’s remarks were her own intervention in that setting, rather than an announcement of a new government measure.

The former chancellor’s warning is particularly relevant to the language used around inclusion and belonging. Her argument rejected the idea that a democratic public can be divided into more and less legitimate citizens. At a concert-hall ceremony, that message linked the act of cultural recognition with a broader appeal to preserve a shared political community.