Tilman Zülch

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Tilman Zülch
Born (1939-09-02)September 2, 1939
Libina, Sudetenland (present day Czech Republic)
Nationality German
Occupation General secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples and Society for Threatened Peoples International
Known for Human rights activist, Charged for embezzlement of organizations assets

Tilman Zülch (born on September 2, 1939 in Libina, Sudetenland, present day Czech Republic) is a German human rights activist. He is the founder and general secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples.

Since 2012, German state prosecutors are investigating Tilman Zülch,[1] the Secretary-General of two organizations, the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (GfbV-Deutschland) and Society for Threatened Peoples International STPI (GfbV-International), for embezzlement of money. The accused is alleged that he enriched himself at the expense of the organization's assets, announced state prosecutor Frank-Michael Laue. In addition, Tilman Zülch[2] is accused of having given money to other individuals and therefore to have harmed the organization.[3]

In November 2011, during the STP's annual meeting two former board of directors who had filed their findings of embezzlement of the organizations assets and started the public prosecutors' investigations were ousted. Even so, the legitimacy of the election was contested by the regional court Göttingen, the higher regional court in Braunschweig later decided that the new five-member board election in November 2011 had been legally convened (File Reference 2W 42/12). Consequently, the new elected board unanimously denied the accusations against Zülch previously being made by the former board of directors – and during the STP's annual meeting on November 3, 2012, the two auditors of the STP-Germany declared the allegations against Tilman Zülch to be unsubstantiated. It is noted that one of the two auditors was a decade ago the financial managing director of the organization when about one million German DM were missing from the organizations yearly assets, and the Society for Threatened Peoples was at the brink of bankruptcy.[4]

Even so the German Central Institute for Social Affairs once again awarded the Society for Threatened Peoples its Seal of Approval in recognition of its responsible use of donations.[5] in December 2012, two branches of the NGO Society for Threatened Peoples International faced criminal charges for fraud and embezzlement of donations and the organizations assets and are currently under state prosecutors investigation in two countries, Germany and Switzerland.[6]

Life

In 1945 he moved with his family during the postwar expulsion of Germans out of the Sudetenland. As a boy he belonged to the Bündische Jugend, part of the German Youth Movement in Hamburg. He completed his Abitur at the Gymnasium Louisenlund in the Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde. He studied politics and economics in Hamburg, Graz, and Heidelberg. He was active in college political groups and the Außerparlamentarische Opposition.

In June 1968, he along with Klaus Guerke founded “Aktion: Biafra Hilfe” so as to draw attention of the world to the genocide happening in Biafra, in present day Nigeria.

From this Aktion group emerged the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in 1970. The main office of the STP has been located in Göttingen since 1979. The STP (GfbV-Deutschland) is one of the largest human rights organizations in Germany (2006) .

Tilman Zülch feels that it is an obligation to campaign for religious and ethnic persercuted people especially for Germany in Austria given the crimes of Nazi Germany. He feels that the way for Germans to deal with the past is not to stay silent in face of other crimes such as: those of the Stalin era, the mass expulsions of Germans after 1945, or the genocides of today.

Zülch is an author of the magazine bedrohte völker (earlier the pogrom).

Awards & Honors

  • GeoEnvironment Prize 1982
  • The Lower- Saxony Prize for Journalism 1996
  • The Silver Order of the Arms of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1996
  • The Annual Award of the Federation of Expulsees 2001
  • The Federal Cross of Merit am Bande 2002
  • The Human Rights Prize of the Sudeten Germans Welfare and Culture Association 2003
  • The Göttingen Peace Prize in recognition of his lifetime work 2003
  • The Medal of the Iraqi-Kurdish National Assembly 2005
  • The Srebrenica Award against Genocide of the three women's and mothers' associations 2006
  • The Sarajevo Anti-War Centre#s Freedom Prize for Human Rights 2006
  • Honorary Member of the Saxony-Anhalt Federation of the Victims of Stalinist Persecution
  • Honorary Member of the Union of Women camp Detainees of Bosnia Herzegovina
  • Member of the Jury for the Weimar Human Rights Prize
  • Member of the Jury of the “Centre Against Expulsions” Supporters Association

Publications

Texts are only available in German

  • Guerke, Klaus and Tilman Zülch. 1968. Biafra, Todesurteil für ein Volk? Berlin: Luttner-Verlang.

Biafa, Death sentence for a People

  • Zülch, Tilman. 1979a. Von denen keiner spricht. Verfolgte Minderheiten Reinbek: Rowohlt.

The People That No-one Talks About

  • Zülch, Tilman. 1979b. ‘‘In Auschwitz vergast, bis heute verfolgt - zur Situation der Sinti und Roma in Europa Reinbek: Rowohlt.

Gassed in Auschwitz, still persecuted today – the Sinti and Roma in Europe

  • Zülch, Tilman. 1991. Völkermord an den Kurden Hamburg: Luchtehand.

Genocide of the Kurds

  • Zülch, Tilman. 1993. Ethnische Säuberungen" - Völkermord für Großserbien Hamburg: Luchterhand. Sarajevo 1996.

Ethnic Cleansing – Genocide in the cause of Greater Serbia

  • Vollmer, Johannes and Tilman Zülch. 1996. Aufstand der Opfer - Verratene Völker zwischen Hitler und Stalin Göttingen: pogrom Taschenbücher.

Resistance of the Victims – Betrayed people between Hitler and Stalin

References

  1. ↑ http://www.taz.de/!88717/
  2. ↑ http://www.hna.de/nachrichten/landkreis-goettingen/goettingen/riesenzoff-gfbv-1622771.html
  3. ↑ http://www.hna.de/lokales/goettingen/riesenzoff-gfbv-1622771.htmlom
  4. ↑ WATCH, STPI (26 February 2013). "News Summary". STPIWatch. 
  5. ↑ http://www.dzi.de/spenderberatung/datenbanksuchmaske/suchergebnisse/?7486
  6. ↑ USA, Hunnington News (25 February 2013). "Two branches of human rights NGO Society for Threatened Peoples International (STPI) with UN status accused of embezzling donations". Hunnington News-USA. 
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