Waltraut Rubien

Waltraut Rubien (born February 11, 1927 in Kolberg , Kołobrzeg in Polish; † December 26, 2017 in Wedel ) was a German pedagogue who did a lot for German-Israeli relations .

Life

After fleeing from Western Pomerania in 1945, she came to Hamburg via Schwerin in 1946 . Her grandparents had hidden three Jewish families in Pomerania. In Hamburg she worked as a teacher for German, biology and psychology at the grammar school Willhöden until her retirement . She organized the first trip for German students to Israel . Waltraut Rubien was married to the engineer Werner Rubien since 1946 and has a son, the doctor Jens Rubien. She and her husband were Christians .

Work and functions

Waltraut Rubien was personally and financially committed to German-Israeli relations, her activities also focused on the memory of deported Hamburg Jews . In addition, Rubien campaigned for greening projects in the Negev . In 1977 she joined the German-Israeli Society , from 1990 to 2006 she was chairman of its Hamburg working group and, at the same time, she was vice-president of the German-Israeli Society in Berlin for eight years.

Political ties existed with the Federal Presidents Richard von Weizsäcker and Roman Herzog as well as Hamburg's mayors and the former ambassadors of Israel in Germany, Asher Ben-Natan and Shimon Stein , and the former mayor of Jerusalem , Teddy Kollek .

In 1992 Rubien initiated the decision of the Hamburg citizenship to build a conference center in Sde Boker in the Negev, built in 1994 with two million marks . Since then, this “Hamburg House” has been a link between the city of Hamburg and Israel.

In 2008 she founded the David Ben-Gurion Foundation in Germany (the foundation's goals are international understanding and the promotion of cultural and scientific exchange between Germany and Israel) and was its president until the end. School partnerships are a focus of the work .

honors and awards

• 1997 Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon
• 1999 Honorary Citizen of the Negev District (Israel)
• 2006 Honorary Chairwoman of the German-Israeli Society for life
• 2010 Silver medal for faithful work in the service of the people by the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

swell

• Un-retired woman with a full-time volunteer job. Article from the world of September 11, 1999
• The Ben Gurion Foundation's Reconciler. Article from the Hamburger Abendblatt from September 26, 2013
• On the death of Waltraut Rubien, our honorary chairwoman, companion and friend (1927 - 2017). Obituary of the German-Israeli Society, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Hamburg, dated January 2, 2018
• Ben Gurion Foundation mourns its president. Obituary of the Ben Gurion Foundation from January 4, 2018
• A life for Israel. Obituary in the Jüdische Allgemeine from January 11, 2018