Hermann Sieben

Hermann was buried on January 26. Village resident and founder of the School for Peace, Dr. Nava Sonnenschein traveled to Germany for the funeral and in the village a parallel ceremony was held, with village residents and school children.

Photos and videos from the occasion

Ulla Philipps Heck, the director of the German Friends of Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam wrote:

Good-bye to our dear friend and beacon Hermann Sieben

Dear friends in the village and abroad,

it is with deep sadness that we have to tell you that your loyal, stubborn and unbelievably effective supporter for decades and your and our devoted friend Hermann Sieben passed away yesterday, on January 13, 2023.

Heide Sieben and their son and daughter, Michael and Agnes, were on his side all those past months in which he knew about his illness and bravely went through all the growing constrictions resulting from it.

Hermann was the co-chair and then chair of the German FA from 1985 to 2013 and was our honorary chair ever since and we owe him more than we can possibly say.

Soon in his professional life as the head of German youth exchange with Egypt, Jordan and Israel, Hermann was an institution and a torch to international youth exchange and youth encounters. A whole generation of leaders in youth education was trained by him and quite a few participated in groups also visiting Neve Shalom. One of his key goals was to make as many people as possible become interested and then give them something to engage in, according to their abilities and qualifications. Only this way, he believed can people of different ideologies, cultures and religions learn to respect and understand each other. AND he knew that having nice ideas is not enough: You also need practical and reliable investment, if you want to be effective. To him, raising funds for peace education was a natural part of that.

Thus, he was a perfect match to Neve Shalom • Wahat al-Salam and its educational institutions. And, thus, he became a pioneer in Germany, regarding solidarity with both people in Israel/Palestine. You can’t even possibly try to count the hours that Hermann devoted to peace education in the village, managing the everyday office work for the German FA, giving lectures and writing articles, establishing contacts and taking as many people to the village as possible.

His work was not always easy, sometimes he lingered on the edge of illegality when German law and the way things were done in Israel didn’t quite go together. But he kept calm and carried on. In 1992, the guesthouse, which could be built largely owing to his fundraising, was inaugurated – and later enlarged.

Untiringly, Hermann addressed innumerable foundations, institutions, organisations and even television shows with requests for fundraising.

Several times, he was a one-man fire brigade to the village when the village was in a financial crisis, e.g. when the primary school got into debts for transportation Hermann raised the means for several school
buses.

Realizing that – according to its statutes – the German FA couldn’t support humanitarian aid by the village, Hermann initiated the foundation of the Bruno-Hussar Foundation that financed different such projects like summer camps or emergency aid.

When we honoured him as our outgoing chair in 2013, we were flabbergasted to find out hat, in those 29 years from 1986 until 2013 (there were no earlier figures), Hermann had raised four million four hundred and thirty-nine euros, i.e 450,50€ every single day.

Full of faithfully deserved respect, we deeply thank Hermann for this incredible support, for the energy and love he invested, sometimes even jeopardizing his health but never giving up.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Heide, Agnes and Michael.

The German FA

Ulla Philipps-Heck

Some photos from the life of Hermann Sieben