STP mourns Rüdiger Nehberg

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the survival expert Rüdiger Nehberg – who died yesterday at the age of 84 – always showed great commitment for the rights of the indigenous Yanomami in Brazil. "With his spectacular human rights campaigns, in cooperation with the STP, he helped to raise awareness for the threatened Yanomami," stated Ulrich Delius, the STP's Director, in Göttingen on Friday. With his extraordinary commitment, the former pastry chef ensured that the South American Yanomami became the best-known indigenous community among the people of northern Germany. Further, he achieved a lot in Brazil: he contributed significantly to the Yanomami's efforts to protect their land and to mark the borders.

He managed to cross the Atlantic on his own three times – on a pedal boat, a raft, and a tree trunk – as a means to draw attention to the dramatic situation of the Yanomami. In 1983, he started a petition to the Pope, in cooperation with the STP, asking him to stand up for the indigenous indigenous community, which was at that time threatened by gold seekers. The petition was signed by Günter Grass, Willy Brandt, and other well-known personalities. Four years later, in 1987, he crossed the Atlantic in a homemade pedal boat to raise awareness for the plight of the Yanomami. When America celebrated its "discovery" by Christoph Columbus in 1992, Nehberg and his colleague Christina Haverkamp crossed the South Atlantic on a bamboo raft carrying a message by the STP, emphasizing that 500 years of "America" also meant 500 years of genocide against indigenous communities. In 2000, he traveled to Brazil on an 18-meter fir tree, to appeal to the country's government to show more effort to protect Amazonia and its indigenous peoples.

"With his spectacular actions, Nehberg set new standards in human rights work. His unconventional approach raised a lot of attention for the indigenous peoples and their rights," Delius stated. With his films, books, and countless lectures in which he reported on his travels to the Yanomami, Nehberg informed the broader public in Germany about the indigenous peoples' struggle for survival.