The Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class.
Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) honored the 101-year-old on Monday in the Red City Hall in Berlin.
Born in 1921, Friedländer lived underground during the Nazi era and survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
In 1946 she emigrated to New York, in 2010 she moved back to Berlin.
Since then she has appeared as a contemporary witness in schools.
"Today we bow once again to the impressive life's work and the tremendous courage of our Berlin honorary citizen Margot Friedländer," Giffey said a few days ago about Friedländer, according to a statement.
"In an admirable way, Margot Friedländer bears witness to her life, to the persecution in National Socialist Berlin, to the fate of her family and to the Holocaust."
"Margot Friedländer's authentic and resolute voice reminds us that it is up to all of us to say goodbye to 'Never Again!'
remains,” Giffey is further quoted as saying.
One must fight day after day to preserve the rule of law and a society in which Jews live safely and freely.
Kai Wegner, head of the CDU Berlin, described the awardee as a "personality of the century" who repeatedly reminds us that freedom, justice and democracy are not a matter of course.
A bust of Friedländer by the artist Stephanie von Dallwitz was also unveiled at the ceremony on Monday.
"With the sculpture by Margot Friedländer in the Red Town Hall, we are showing in a prominent place that all the Berlin Jews who were expelled, deported or murdered by the inhuman National Socialist regime also have their place in our city hall," Giffey said in the statement quoted.
A portrait of the Holocaust survivors is already hanging in the honorary citizen gallery in the Berlin House of Representatives.
Friedländer, who has received many awards, had already been awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011.
The new honor is a so-called upgrade.