[3] In 1977 she wrote her dissertation in Heidelberg about The Legitimacy of Fiction (Die Legitimation der Fiktion).

[2][3] Since 2011 she has been working on a research project titled The Past in the Present: Dimensions and Dynamics of Cultural Memory.

[4] In 2014, she received the Heineken Prize for history from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[5] In 2018, she was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels together with her husband, honouring their work "sustainable peace and understanding among the peoples of the world".

[6][7] Since 2020, Assmann has been member of the order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, together with her husband.