By Christel Neudeck
Troisdorf, May 30, 2026
Dear friends, dear participants of this memorial event for Rupert!
I am especially pleased that many young people are here today, because you will have to continue our work when we are too old or no longer here. Rupert always said: One must do something – talking alone is not enough. And that is true. Fine speeches are nice, but without being put into action they make little sense.
Who was Rupert Neudeck? Since, as his wife, I can hardly praise him myself here – especially as I know very well how exhausting he could be – I will let Wolfgang Thierse speak today, the former President of the Bundestag, who knew Rupert longer than I did and was his friend. Since 1969, the Catholic Student Community of Münster met with the one in East Berlin; until the fall of the Wall, this was only possible in East Berlin.
Wolfgang Thierse says about Rupert: “It is the memory of a man who lived his life with his eyes on others, on the victims of wars and violence, on refugees and displaced people. His passionate commitment was dedicated to them; he organized help for them, he won supporters and support for them – morally, financially, and above all practically on the ground. Rupert was, in the best sense, a moralist of action: courageous and impatient, tenacious and intelligent at the same time. It is good to remember his example of radical humanity and to understand his role model as an encouragement for committed humanity today and tomorrow.”
I would like to add that Rupert, our companions, and I were always aware that we act from a position of safety; that those we try to help have fallen into great misery through no fault of their own; and that it is much easier to help than to ask for help.
Here at Burg Wissem in Troisdorf, “our Vietnamese” insisted on erecting a monument to him. It reads: Neither fearful nor reckless – the motto of his hometown Danzig. I cannot imagine anything that would suit Rupert better. It could also be the motto of our own lives, or become one.
When we had not been married long, he dreamed aloud: The possible is always greater than the real (Max Horkheimer). I was startled and thought I might have married a dreamer. But later I learned how true this sentence is. It is true – I had married a wise and farsighted man, even if I did not yet understand the dimension of his ideas at the time.
In February 1979 he went to Paris to interview Jean-Paul Sartre. He had written his doctoral thesis on Sartre and Albert Camus, titled: Political Ethics in Sartre and Camus. Sartre was an internationally renowned philosopher. When Rupert returned, he reported about a French committee that wanted to rent a ship to rescue the so‑called boat people in the South China Sea. They asked Rupert to raise money for this action in Germany. He wrote to Heinrich Böll on the train. Two days later, Böll called him at Deutschlandfunk, encouraged him, and promised his support. That was the birth of the Cap Anamur Committee.
Shortly afterwards, Franz Alt gave him the opportunity to speak about the boat refugees in the South China Sea on Report Baden‑Baden, and within one week we received 1.3 million Deutschmarks in donations. We knew this was the mandate to charter our own ship. The result of this story can be seen here today. We knew a lot about Vietnam, but little about the wonderful people from Vietnam who live among us today. We could not save everyone; but from 1979 to 1987 we rescued 11,300 refugees who were traveling in 226 boats and had often already given up on life. Our supporters donated 22 million Deutschmarks for this work. Is that not a miracle? To this day, the organizations Cap Anamur and Grünhelme can finance all their projects through donations. That fills us with great gratitude.
Rupert was a workaholic; he worked at Deutschlandfunk until his retirement and at the same time had a full‑time volunteer job as a humanitarian. He was a happy person because he could do exactly what inspired him. And do you know what I loved very much about him? He was incorruptible. He never allowed himself to be diverted from his convictions for any advantage.
And he was very religious. His faith made him strong. When he was asked in Afghanistan whether people in Europe still believed, he replied: We all believe in one God who created heaven and earth. That was his genuine conviction, and that is why doors were open to him there.
In the Bible there is the story of the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, who complains to Jesus because he cannot reach the healing water and no one helps him. Jesus says: Stand up and walk. There is a poem by Bertolt Brecht about this, which I would like to recite because it can give us courage and move us to let go of unnecessary fears. To not accept the “yes, but” when we want to do something possible.
Brecht knew this parable, for when he was asked which book was his favorite reading, he replied: “You will laugh – the Bible.”
Seven years no step succeeded
When to the great physician I came.
He asked: Why the crutches?
And I said: I am lame.
He said: That is no wonder.
Be so kind as to try.
What cripples you is this lumber,
Go, fall, crawl, don’t rely!
Laughing like a monster
He took my lovely crutches,
Broke them on my back in hunches,
Threw them laughing in the fire.
Now I am cured: I walk.
A laughter was my healer.
Only sometimes, when I see timber,
I walk for hours somewhat poorer.
When Rupert died in 2016 and we said farewell to him in the church of St. Aposteln in Cologne, Navid Kermani – whom I am to greet all of you from – said among other things: “God burdens no soul with more than it can bear, it says in the Quran. And yet this verse can only be true because individuals bear more than we do. There is too much suffering in the world. Our civilization would perish if each of us carried only our own share of mercy. At all times there are individuals who give everything. In earlier times such people were called saints, and wherever they were written about in the history of religions, it was noticeable that they radiated something childlike, that they were a bit like children. I believe this is because they preserve an impulse that each of us knows, to which each of us often gives in, but often does not: the impulse to reach out a hand to the one who needs our help. Unless you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven, it says in the New Testament.”
For us, Rupert was not a saint; but he could not distance himself from the suffering in this world. I would like to tell you a story about this.
The great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber said: “Success is not one of God’s names.” Today Cap Anamur is a success story. But of course there were also obstacles, dangers, and despair. In 2013 three of our staff members were kidnapped in Syria. After three months all three managed to free themselves. It was such a leaden time, for us and of course especially for the abducted. In 2015 Navid Kermani received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He spoke so movingly about a kidnapped Jesuit who, incidentally, has never reappeared. Rupert heard the speech on television and cried. His nine‑year‑old granddaughter Nola saw her grandfather cry for the first time and asked me quietly: Why is Rupert crying? I explained to her that she had prayed for our staff during the kidnapping. I thought then: God, if you do not hear the prayers of this child, where are you? Rupert knew very well what Navid was talking about. And she understood him.
My dream is that Germany will one day become a multicultural country in which Martin Luther King’s dream comes true, which he formulated on 28 August 1963 in Washington: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We may come from different cultures, which we should preserve. Here in Germany we have a uniquely good constitution, which states among other things: Human dignity is inviolable. If we take that to heart, we can live together and do something!
Perhaps today, from here, from us, an impulse will go out that can help people in great need, because: The possible is always greater than the real.
PS: After this event we thought about why Rupert is still so present after ten years.
So often former boat people have told me how they, their parents, or grandparents were rescued at the last minute by Cap Anamur. In Vietnam it is part of the culture to honor one’s parents and to pass this on to the children. Since they were given a new life through the rescue, they feel Rupert is their father. Although many people were involved in this action, perhaps Rupert was indeed the only one who had the courage in 1979 to sign the charter contract without any guarantee of success.
I am often asked what Rupert would say about the current political situation. He was someone who spoke his convictions, whether he was loved or hated for it.
Perhaps we all simply need role models.