Historian Dan Diner, who heads the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture in Leipzig, Germany, is to receive the 2006 Ernst Bloch prize on Saturday.

Diner, 60, is receiving the award for his voice of understanding and reason, the jury said.

The 10,000-euro (13,000-dollar) award is given every three years in memory of the German Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), who was born in Ludwisgshafen.

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Bloch fled Germany twice - once from the Nazis in 1933 and a second time from East Germany after conflict with Communist officials, biographers wrote.

One of his major works is "The Principle of Hope."