Boxer Ali to Accept German Peace Prize
March 14, 2005US boxing legend Muhammad Ali will accept a prominent German peace prize in December for his efforts to promote civil rights and the work of the United Nations, organizers said on Sunday. The former world heavyweight champion has confirmed he will come to Berlin on Dec. 17 to pick up the Otto Hahn peace medal, named for a German nuclear physicist, the German Society for the United Nations said. Ali was selected for "his lifelong engagement in the American civil rights movement and the global cultural emancipation of blacks as well as his work as a UN Goodwill ambassador," the organization said. The prize is awarded every two years. Its previous winners include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Otto Hahn (1879-1968) won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1944 and after the war became a vocal nuclear arms control advocate.