The Organization

The honorary Managing Board of ASF consists of the chairperson, her two deputies and four assessors. The current board was elected on May 15, 2022.

Ilse Junkermann
Ilse Junkermann, born in 1957, was Bishop of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKD) from 2009 to 2019. After completing her studies, the theologian was a pastor in Horb am Neckar and Stuttgart. From 1994, she was head of studies for pastoral theology and preaching at the parish seminary in Stuttgart-Birkach. From 1997, she also headed the Department of Training and Personnel at the Oberkirchenrat in Stuttgart. Since fall 2019, she has headed the research center “Kirchliche Praxis in der DDR. Church (being) in Dictatorship and Minority” at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Leipzig. Ilse Junkermann was elected Chair at the 2020 General Assembly.

Andreas Kroneder
Andreas Kroneder, born in Regensburg in 1983, did a volunteer service with Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste in Virginia, USA, in 2004/2005. He studied sociology in Vienna and Berlin and worked as a research assistant at the Free University of Berlin. Andreas Kroneder is deputy head of department at Diakoniewerk Simeon in Berlin. He has been a member of the ASF Board since 2018 and was elected Treasurer and Deputy Chairman in May 2022.

Jakob Stürmann
Jakob Stürmann, born in Bremen in 1985, is a research assistant and departmental coordinator of the politics research department at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow. He completed his doctorate in history in 2020. He previously studied History, Gender Studies and Eastern European Studies in Berlin and Birmingham (UK). From 2004 to 2006 he was an ASF volunteer in Ukraine. Jakob Stürmann was elected Deputy Chairman at the 2020 General Assembly.

Marie Hecke
Marie Hecke was an ASF volunteer in Minsk, Belarus, from 2006 to 2007. After studying theology and Jewish studies in Münster, Berlin, Leipzig and Jerusalem, Hecke worked as a theological assistant at Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste. She is currently working as a research assistant at the Chair of New Testament and Theological Gender Studies at the Wuppertal/Bethel University of Applied Sciences. She is a member of the AG Theologie. Marie Hecke was elected to the Board at the 2020 General Assembly.

Gabriele Scherle
Gabriele Scherle, born in 1952, was a provost, peace pastor and parish pastor of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau until her retirement in 2017. She studied social work, Protestant theology and Jewish studies in Berlin, Jerusalem and Dublin. During her studies, she was already a member of the board of Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste from 1980 to 1984 and from 1978 to 1980 she was a pedagogical employee of Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden. During this time, she worked as a team leader in the preparation of volunteers at ASF. Gabriele Scherle is an honorary Managing Board member of the Anne Frank Educational Center and the AG Jews and Christians at the Protestant Church Congress, as well as a member of the EKD Synod and the Chamber for Theology of the EKD.

Gianna Magdalena Schlichte
Gianna Magdalena Schlichte, born in 1984, works as a lawyer for the Bremen Parliament. She previously worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and for a legal aid NGO in Kenya. She wrote her dissertation on the practice of victim participation at the International Criminal Court. She is a volunteer counselor for victims of right-wing extremist, racist and anti-Semitic violence. In 2003/2004, she was an ASF volunteer in Mechelen (Belgium) at the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance. Gianna Magdalena Schlichte was elected to the ASF Board in May 2022.

Joachim Rasch
Joachim Rasch, born in 1963, has been a parish priest since 2001, first in Sebnitz on the Czech border and since 2015 in Bischofswerda. He studied Protestant theology in Leipzig. In the 1980s, he took part in various summer camps in the GDR and the Czech Republic and also led several summer camps. From 1992 to 1997, he was the ASF advisor for volunteer work and was responsible for Poland, the Czech Republic, summer camps and the unification of ASZ and ASF.

The work of the ASF managing board is accompanied by a board of trustees, which meets once a year and whose members are appointed. The members of the Board of Trustees are professionally and honorary active in areas that are directly related to the fields of work of Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste.

The current members are:

• Rev. Manon Althaus, Managing Board Conference of Regional Church Working Groups Christians and Jews
• Deidre Berger, Board of Trustees of the International Youth and Meeting Center Auschwitz
• Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Bernzen, lawyer
• Marco Bode, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board SV Werder Bremen
• Pastor Renke Brahms, former Peace Commissioner of the EKD
• Gitta Connemann, Member of the Bundestag, (CDU), Federal Chairwoman of the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT)
• Christoph Flügge, former State Secretary, former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
• Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan, Director of the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research, HU Berlin
• Uta Gerlant, historian
• Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Member of the German Bundestag, Vice President of the German Bundestag (Bündnis 90/Die GRÜNEN)
• Oberkirchenrätin Katrin Hatzinger, Head of the Brussels Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Council of the EKD
• Pastor Ilona Klemens, Secretary General of the German Coordinating Council of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation
• Dr. Jörg Lüer, Managing Director of the German Commission for Justice and Peace
• Dr. Thomas Lutz, former Head of the Memorials Department of the Topography of Terror Foundation
• Maria Macher, Diakoniewerk Simeon gGmbH
• Dagmar Mensink, Chairwoman of the Christians and Jews discussion group at the Central Committee of German Catholics
• Tamara Molitor, Head of HR Development Würth GmbH & Co. KG, representative of Bettina Würth
• Prof. Dr. Claudia Nothelle, Vice President of the Central Committee of German Catholics e.V.
• Petra Pau, Member of the German Bundestag, Vice President of the German Bundestag (Die LINKE.)
• Klaus Rieth, retired Church Councillor, former Head of the Ecumenical Department of the Protestant Church in Württemberg
• Petra Rosenberg, Chairwoman of the Landesverband Deutscher Sinti und Roma Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.
• Thomas Roth, Journalist
• Senior Church Councillor Henrike Tetz, Member of the Church Council of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland
• Dr. Manfred Sapper, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine “Osteuropa”
• Dr. Irina Scherbakova, Memorial Moscow
• Dr. Christa Schikorra, Head of the Education Department at the Flossenbürg Memorial
• Dr. Irmgard Schwaetzer, former President of the Synod of the EKD, former Federal Minister
• Dr. Hermann Simon, Founding Director of the New Synagogue Berlin Foundation – Centrum Judaicum
• Saša Stanišić, writer
• Stephan Steinlein, former State Secretary, Advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Sternberg, former President of the Central Committee of German Catholics
• Reverend Dr. Christof Theilemann, Director of Berliner Missionswerk
• Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Thierse, former President of the German Bundestag
• Prof. Barbara Traub, Central Council of Jews in Germany, represented by N. N.
• Konrad Weiß, film director and publicist
• Dr. Michael Wunder, Director of the Alsterdorf Advisory Centre Hamburg
• Bettina Würth, Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of the Würth Group’s Family Trusts, represented by Tamara Molito