Fromm Prize Winners

The International Erich Fromm Society recognizes with this award the lifework of Noam Chomsky, especially his from public opinion uninfluenced political convictions, which center on the right to life and dignity of all of mankind, even and perhaps especially the powerless. Like Erich Fromm, he boldly and deliberately speaks a language of reason capable both of impressing upon the conscience of the powerful and the opinion makers and of giving hope to the powerless and critical thinkers.

Chomsky, who advised Fromm in linguistic matters of the having mode for Fromm's "To Have or To Be?", plays a similar role today as Fromm did in the fifties and sixties. As Fromm did, Chomsky has the ability to grasp reality without cognitive deformations and to be aware of the distorting function the "pathology of normalcy" has in regard to our public opinions and political convictions and in "manufacturing consent".

The celebration took place in the New Castle of Stuttgart. Chomsky himself presented the Fromm-Lecture entitled: "‘The evil scourge of terrorism': Reality, Construction, Remedy". Laudations were presented by the Harvard Historian Lawrence Friedman (who is currently finishing a biography of Erich Fromm) and by Peter Zudeick, a German philosopher and writer. Konstantin Wecker, an equally well-known composer of political songs (and 2007 recipient of the Fromm prize) spontaneously agreed to contribute some songs to the celebration. - The honorarium is to be donated to the Carol Chomsky Memorial Fund for Children War Victims.

The Erich Fromm Prize is awarded annually by the International Erich Fromm Society to persons who are committed to the achievement of excellence in preserving or reviving humanistic thought and action in the tradition of Erich Fromm. Previous prize recipients have been: Heribert Prantl, Hans Leyendecker, Eugen Drewermann, Konstantin Wecker, Jakob von Uexküll und Gerhart R. Baum.