Osteuropa-Institut warmly congratulates its longtime colleague, Dr. Tessa Hofmann, on being awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on October 20, 2025!

Dr. Tessa Hofmann is a world-renowned genocide researcher, sociologist, human rights activist, and author. After completing her doctorate at the Freie Universität Berlin in 1982, she worked at Osteuropa-Institut from 1983 to 2015 and became its indispensable member.

Since the 1970s, her research has focused on Armenian history and culture. She has studied extensively the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians/Arameans, and Pontic Greeks in the Ottomd in voluntary work for human rights, including with the Society for Threatened Peoples and the “Working Group for Recognition” (AGA), which she co-founded and of which she has been a member since 1979. Dr. Hofmann is also co-founder and spokesperson for the Fördergemeinschaft für eine Ökumenische Gedenkstätte für Genozidopfer im Osmanischen Reich e.V. (FÖGG).

Dr. Tessa Hofmann has been awarded two honorary professorships and her work has received several prizes. She is the author of numerous academic publications, including the monographs “One Nation – Three Sub-Ethnic Groups: The Case of Armenia and her Diaspora,” “ Annäherung an Armenien: Geschichte und Kultur” (Approaching Armenia: History and Culture), and “Armenier in Berlin, Berlin und Armenien” (Armenians in Berlin, Berlin, and Armenia). Her first novel, “Tauben und Raben. Ein historischer Roman aus dem alten Irland” (Pigeons and Ravens: A Historical Novel from Ancient Ireland), was published in 2019.