BERLIN, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- A foundation was awarded on Monday for its dedication to helping Jewish female artists in Germany.

The Obermayer German Jewish History Awards announced its awardees on Monday night, among whom was Hilde Schramm, a non-Jewish German lady who established the Return Foundation for the Promotion of Jewish Women in the Arts and Sciences.

In half a century, more than 150 Jewish women who came from across the globe and lived in Germany have been funded by the foundation to complete their projects ranging from exhibitions to family ancestry research.

"Since 1994, the foundation has awarded 500,000 euros in grants. The grants have ranged from 300 to 11,000 euros apiece, based on each particular project," said a statement published on the website of the Obermayer Awards.

"The Return Foundation was the country's first to highlight the fate of Jewish art stolen by the Nazis," according to the statement.

The foundation was initially financed by the payment from selling the valuable paintings inherited from Schramm's father, Adolf Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer.

"I didn't want to keep the paintings ... If I sold them, then I felt I would be in the line of the profiteers," said Schramm when recalling how she could not trace the original owners of her father's collection.

The foundation has since been used as a platform to raise public consciousness about the country's Jewish legacy and its ongoing impacts.

Honoring at least five individuals each year, the Obermayer Awards were established in 2000 to pay tribute to non-Jewish Germans who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to German Jewish communities. Enditem

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