Alexander Friedmann Prize

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The Dr. Alexander Friedmann Prize was founded in Vienna in 2009 and has been awarded annually to people, projects or organizations in Austria who are particularly committed to traumatized people . The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros.

Namesake, sponsoring association

The award is named after the neurologist, psychiatrist and university professor Alexander Friedmann (1948–2008), an important representative of transcultural psychiatry . Friedmann built the outpatient clinic for transcultural psychiatry at the Vienna General Hospital , which he headed until his death. In 1994 he co-founded the psychosocial center ESRA and in 1998 the Jewish Vocational Education Center (JBBZ). From 1983 he worked as a board member of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien and was chairman of its social commission from 1989. He was appointed to the Ethics Committee of the City of Vienna and received the Golden Merit Sign of the Republic of Austria .

The ESRA psychosocial center was founded in 1994 by the Israelitischer Kultusgemeinde and the City of Vienna . ESRA offers medical and psychotherapeutic treatments as well as social work advice for survivors of the Nazi regime , their relatives and the Jewish population of Vienna. People from other population groups who have been traumatized by experiencing violence, disasters or other events can also find help at ESRA - as far as possible. In 2011, the association received the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights , provides organizational support for the Alexander Friedmann Prize Fund and makes its premises available for the award ceremony.

Board of trustees, jury, award

The award is supported by ESRA and the Alexander Friedmann Prize fund approved in 2012 . The board of trustees is chaired by Clemens Jabloner and Patricia Kahane , further members are the historian Kathrin Korn and the treasurers Hans Peter Hoffmann and Christoph Rechberger .

The jury for the 2015 award consists - in addition to Jabloner, Kahane and Korn - of the psychiatrists Siegfried Kasper (Chair at the Medical University of Vienna ), Heinz Katschnig , (Head of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry ) David Vyssoki (Chairman of the ESRA Association), the psychologist and assistant professor Brigitte Lueger-Schuster and the social worker Monika Vyslouzil (Rector of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences ).

The prize is awarded for special commitment in psychosocial work with traumatized people, for example persecuted people , refugees , members of minorities or migrants . Achievements in psychosocial counseling, care or treatment, as well as in the field of science are awarded. The prize is awarded annually, is endowed with 10,000 euros and can be split between two winners. It is intended to support the continuation and further development of the work of the award-winning project. The public should also be made aware of the problems of traumatized people and “made aware of the value of community service.” In particular, services that go beyond ethnic borders are taken into account. The application is made using the online form on the prize website.

The award ceremony takes place during a ceremony in the premises of the ESRA Psychosocial Center in Vienna's Tempelgasse.

Award winners

  • 2009: ASPIS , Research and Treatment Center for Victims of Violence, Klagenfurt and
  • 2009: Hemayat , care center for torture and war survivors in Vienna
  • 2010: PEREGRINA, education, counseling and therapy center for immigrants and women
  • 2010: VEREIN ZEBRA, intercultural counseling and therapy center in Graz
  • 2011: ANKYRA, Center for Intercultural Psychotherapy, establishment of the Diakonie Refugee Service , Innsbruck
  • 2012: Project MOBILE of Caritas , Asylum & Integration, Wiener Neustadt
  • 2013: Aid organization OMEGA, Graz
  • 2014: Advice for deserters and refugees , Vienna

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