Tribute to Katrin Bornmueller, Honorary Chairwoman of the German section of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and Founder/Leader of the Wittlich Working Group, on the occasion of handing over leadership to Carmen Jondral-Schuler (June 4, 2025)

Dear Mayor Rodenkirch, dear Katrin,
Dear Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, President of the ISHR International Council,
Dear Matthias Boehning, Secretary General,
Dear Valerio Krueger, Member of the Executive Board and Spokesman for ISHR Germany,
Dear friends and supporters of the Wittlich Working Group,

Today, I have the honor of paying tribute to a “living legend” who is in the person of Katrin Bornmueller. According to Google Artificial Intelligence, the term ‘living legend’ means that someone has been so prominent and significant during their lifetime that their story is not only talked about by the current generation, but also by future generations. If you ask anyone in Wittlich about Katrin, she’s known far and wide for her decades-long political and humanitarian work.

What began in 1980 with Katrin joining the then Society for Human Rights grew into a life’s work which has developed over 45 years of commitment to human rights and advocacy, 44 years of teamwork within the ISHR Wittlich Group, and a legacy of 587 truckloads of humanitarian aid delivered to those in need. This selfless act has sustained multiple generations with essential supplies and hope. The fact that you, dear Katrin, are handing over the management of the Wittlich working group to me today means that further generations will benefit from this and will talk about your commitment. In this context, I would particularly like to mention a sustainable sewing course project in the refugee camps in Kurdistan-Iraq. This outstanding project: sewing courses in refugee camps in Kurdistan-Iraq, with support from donations, made it possible to buy sewing machines, empowering many women to create their own sources of income through sewing, which in turn can benefit future generations.

The new and former heads of the Wittlich Working Group of the German section of the ISHR: Carmen Jondral-Schuler (left) and Katrin Bornmüller (right)

Inspired by the ZDF broadcast programme ‘Hilferufe von Drüben’ (“Cries for Help from Beyond”), presented by journalist Gerhard Loewenthal, Katrin and her team started out packing thousands of aid parcels in a garage and sending them to political prisoners across Eastern Europe. With a small group of helpers, at the time where you were still in a garage in the forester’s lodge in Wittlich, you packed thousands of aid parcels for 10 years and sent them to 100 political prisoners in the former DDR, Romania, Solidarity in Poland and to Charter 77 members and persecuted Christians in the CSSR. Katrin protested for human rights, organized information stands, wrote donation appeals, chained herself to embassy fences, crossed barriers to meet presidents, and represented ISHR at ten international conferences. She was monitored by the KGB, Stasi, and Securitate, founded ISHR sections in Lithuania, Latvia, and Croatia, and was Chairwoman of the ISHR for nine years before becoming its Honorary Chair in 2014.

In addition, you protested for human rights, organized information stands, wrote donation letters to Rotary, Lions and others, you chained yourself to embassy fences as a protest. Mainly those of the Soviet Union or the DDR representations who took part in vigils gave lectures on human rights violations, climbed over barricades around the first democratically elected president of Lithuania, Vytautas Landbergis in the Lithuanian parliament. After you had prevailed on Polish border officials to enter Lithuania, you attended 10 KSZE conferences in Madrid, Ottawa, Vienna, Paris, Copenhagen, Bern, Belgrade and Helsinki as a representative of the ISHR. You were observed by the KGB, the Stasi and the Securitate, several Stasi files are filled – also with such an exciting detail that you prefer to eat spaghetti with tomato sauce. You founded the ISHR section Lithuania in 1990, the section in Latvia in 1991 and in Croatia in 1993, where you acted as a chairwoman of the ISHR for 9 years. Since 2014, you have been its honorary chairwoman. You have travelled to many countries which you were often accompanied by your husband and one of your children. In 2015, we visited Turkish refugee camps on the Syrian border together. You have been to the refugee camps in Kurdistan-Iraq 17 times alone, where you have also spent the night on concrete floors. You conducted 300 interviews there with Yazidi women and girls after their IS captivity – the list of your commitments is very, very long and I cannot list everything here and now. I refer you to the book ‘Glaube-Liebe-Sattelschlepper’, which not only describes your work, but is also a piece of contemporary history – that of the so-called Cold War between East and West.

Katrin Bornmueller also rendered outstanding services to the development of the International Council of the ISHR and cooperation between the sections: every year, she invited all the chairpersons of the sections to whom the Wittlich Working Group sent humanitarian aid shipments or with whom she cooperated on the political stage to Wittlich. And then they all sat around a table that were, the representatives from Vienna, Switzerland, Croatia, Romania, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Czechoslovakia who thought about how they could support each other. She still has a particularly deep friendship with Jadranka Cigelj from Prijedor, who enabled Katrin to privately record the war crimes committed against her in the former Yugoslavian war in the book ‘Apartment 102’ for posterity and as evidence for the war crimes trials in The Hague.

Humanitarian aid has been a mainstay of your work since 1990 and, as already mentioned, your team from the Wittlich working group has loaded 587 articulated Lorries with relief supplies in 44 years to date, which have travelled to Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Bosnia, northern Iraq, Romania, Albania, Lebanon, Syria and even the Republic of Congo. With 587 transports, that’s a total of around 7000 tonnes of relief supplies ranging from clothing to furniture, an outstanding achievement by the whole team of volunteers. From the very beginning, your work was supported by the mayors of the town of Wittlich, including Mayor Rodenkirch. You have not only done human rights work, but have also taken into account another guiding principle of the ISHR to contribute to the solution of humanitarian problems through humanitarian aid with parcel campaigns and aid transports and thus to the realization of human rights.

The mayor of Wittlich, Joachim Rodenkirch, presents a certificate of honour for special achievements to Katrin Bornmüller (second from left); here with Carmen Jondral-Schuler (centre), ISHR Secretary General Matthias K. Boehning and the spokesperson for the German section of the ISHR, Valerio Krueger.

For your commitment, you were awarded the Federal Merit 1st Class, as well as state honors from Lithuania, Latvia and Croatia. As a mother of four, it is only possible to accomplish all of this with strong support and a dedicated team of numerous diligent volunteers alongside you. Your Hermann consistently backed your efforts, always stood by you, and contributed ideas for various initiatives. For 45 years, your Christian faith, your affection for your Hermann, and the hope of making the world a better place through humanitarian assistance have motivated you. You are a great role model. Your greatest qualities are courage, perseverance and motivation. Anyone who wants to run a club successfully should have these skills.

We have known each other for 53 years. I came into contact with you as a 10-year-old student, a friend of your daughter Beate. Later, my mother Edith Jondral helped out in the working group, so I never lost sight of your work. A birthday party for my mother was the occasion for us to talk about your commitment and I was so fascinated by it that I have now been actively involved with you for 12 years. You motivated me to run for the ISHR board of the German section, of which I have now been a member for 11 years. You said 12 years ago that I would be your successor, when I wasn’t even thinking about it. Seeing something in someone that the person in question doesn’t yet see in themselves is what characterizes a good leader.

Dear Katrin, it is with gratitude and pride that I am taking over the leadership of the ISHR Wittlich working group from you today. Like you, I am driven by the idea of Christian charity. I am delighted that you continue to work in the background and that I have such a great team at my side as the Wittlich working group, without whom this work would not be possible. I look forward to continuing the ISHR Wittlich working group together with you.

Dear Katrin, may you remain healthy and God bless you for a long time to come.

Thank you very much.

Carmen Jondral-Schuler