* 1996 Max Planck Award for Research
* 1998 German Historians' Prize
* 1998 Honorary Doctorate in Theology from the Theology Faculty, Munster
* 2004 Soc.Sc.D. (honoris causa), Yale University
* 2005 Ph.D. (honoris causa), Hebrew University of Jerusalem

* 2006 Alfried Krupp Prize for Scholarship
* 2011 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste