Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will receive an award in Berlin for his pivotal role in the collapse of European communism at a ceremony marking reunification day, the award organizers said. The Day of German Unity is held on October 3, the anniversary of the formal reunification of Germany in 1990.
Gorbachev will receive the Quadriga award in the category "The dynamism of hope," which is "devoted to all those, as a result of whose courage walls have fallen and borders have been crossed," Die Quadriga said on its website.
The award is to be handed out to five laureates, to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, former leader of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel, German musician Marius Muller-Westernhagen and German human rights activist Barbel Bohley will also receive awards.
In 1990, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his "his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community."
