René Böll Honors Century Witness Ruth Weiss on Her 101st Birthday in Tübingen on July 26, 2025

Tübingen, July 9, 2025 – René Böll will honor century witness Ruth Weiss with an exhibition of Chinese ink drawings on the occasion of her 101st birthday in Tübingen. Opening: July 26, 2025.

René Böll, a respected specialist in Chinese painting in China, will honor Jewish author, human rights advocate, and anti-apartheid activist Ruth Weiss with an exhibition of his ink drawings inspired by quotes from Ruth Weiss, alongside quotes by Friedrich Hölderlin, his father Heinrich Böll, Chinese poets, and his own reflections. The exhibition will run from July 26 to August 3 in Tübingen.

Opening: July 26, from 7 PM at MUSEUM, Hall 1, Am Stadtgraben 2, 72070 Tübingen.
Exhibition viewing: July 28 – August 3, 9 AM – 7 PM, at the Innovation Center WESTSPITZE, Eisenbahnstraße 1, 72072 Tübingen.

Opening Event

At the opening on July 26, 2025 — Ruth Weiss’s 101st birthday — notable speakers and musical performances are expected:

• Cem Özdemir, MP, Alliance 90/The Greens
• Boris Palmer, Mayor of Tübingen
• Uschi Eid, President of the German Africa Foundation
• Sylvia Löhrmann, Anti-Semitism Commissioner of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Bettina Backes, Board Member, Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Württemberg
• Johannes Freyer, CEO, Innovation Center Westspitze
• Gesche Karrenbrock, Chairwoman of the Ruth Weiss Society

Heinrich Geiger, expert in East Asian art, will honor René Böll’s work.

Music by Renkei Hashimoto (Shakuhachi flute) and Xiuwei Zhou-Geiger (Chinese songs transcribed for violin).

Ruth Weiss will speak via video from her home in Denmark, for health reasons.

Free admission, registration required at:
https://www.coworkgroup.de/events/rene-boell-anmeldung/

Century Witness Ruth Weiss

Born in Fürth in 1924, Ruth Weiss escaped the Holocaust by fleeing to South Africa in 1936. She became one of the most influential international Africa journalists: Guardian and Financial Times correspondent, head of the Africa desk at Deutsche Welle in the 1970s. Declared a “persona non grata” by the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

From 1987–1993, she played a key role in 55 confidence-building conferences between white South African opinion leaders and black liberation movements, helping pave the way for peaceful transition. In 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa awarded her South Africa’s highest national order.

She sees the South African model as inspiration for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, elaborated in her latest book REMEMBERING MEANS ACTING, to be published summer 2025 by Herder Verlag.

Later, she focused on writing novels, crime fiction, and children’s books. Her bestseller My Sister Sara (19 editions) weaves together racism, apartheid, and anti-Semitism in South Africa. It’s used in schools and is required reading in Baden-Württemberg.

Weiss is a long-time educator against racism and anti-Semitism, with over 80 books, manuscripts and readings for all ages. A secondary school in Aschaffenburg was named after her in 2010. Her 100th birthday in 2024 was celebrated school and community wide.

On April 30, 2024, German President Steinmeier awarded her the Grand Federal Cross of Merit at her residence in Denmark for her decades of educational work.

Her 20+ published books and numerous manuscripts cover Jewish history, including The Löws, a 7-volume Jewish family saga from the Middle Ages to today. She also writes crime novels with plots harking back to the Shoah or Southern African political history. 

Selected Honors

• 1994: Two-part ZDF documentary Witnesses of the Century
• 2005: Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize as part of “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005”
• 2019: Honorary Award from the German Africa Foundation
• 2020: Honorary President of the PEN Center of German-Speaking Authors Abroad
• 2022: Ovid Prize, PEN Center; fourth recipient after Guy Stern, Herta Müller, and Wolf Biermann
• 2022: Festschrift Wanderers Between Worlds, 736 pages; celebrated in Nuremberg’s Justice Palace
• 2022: City of Lüdinghausen named a public square after her
• 2023: Guest speaker in Parliament at North Rhine-Westphalia’s Holocaust Memorial
• 2024: Honorary member of the Syndikat (Association of German Language Crime Literature)

Art as a Bridge Between China and Europe – René Böll

Born in 1948 in Cologne, René Böll began working with Chinese and Japanese ink in the 1970s. His work has been exhibited internationally, including in Germany, France, Ireland, the US, and in China and Japan — including the China Art Gallery in Beijing, the Dragon Museum in Weifang, and the German Embassy in Beijing.

In 1998, he was the only Western artist at the 1st International Biennale of Ink Painting in Shenzhen. He is a professor at the Beijing Minzu University.

His work is inspired by Chinese literati painting (wenren hua) and East Asian calligraphy. He blends spontaneity and expressiveness, often pairing painting with calligraphy. Key themes include the impermanence of human existence and references to Chinese Zen poets, Western writers like Hölderlin, and his father Heinrich Böll.

Chinese critic Liu Xiaochun sees him as a rare Western artist who has entered “the spirit of Chinese art” while retaining his Western roots — a cultural bridge.

Short Biographies

• Cem Oezdemir: Former German Minister of Agriculture and actual candidate for Prime Minister of of the German Federal State of Baden Wuerttemberg.

• Boris Palmer: Lord mayor of Tübingen, pioneer in urban sustainability policies.

• Dr. Uschi Eid: President of the German Africa Foundation, former MP, former German G8 Africa Envoy
• Bettina Backes: IT attorney and media law expert, board member of Heinrich Böll Foundation
• Johannes Freyer: CEO of Tübingen Coworking Group Westspitze, classical music organizer
• Dr. Heinrich Geiger: Author and expert on Chinese aesthetics
• Renkei Hashimoto: Japanese singer and Zen Shakuhachi flute master
• Gesche Karrenbrock: Former senior UNHCR official, chair of Ruth Weiss Society
• Sylvia Löhrmann: Former Vice Minister President of NRW, current Antisemitism Commissioner
• Xiuwei Zhou-Geiger: Master violin maker and concert violinist

Artworks and Quotes on Display