Tilman Zülch

Tilman Zülch (; 2 September 193917 March 2023) was a German human rights activist. He was the founder and general secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP).

Biography Zülch was born in Liebau, in the Sudetenland, now Libina, Czech Republic. His family left the Sudetenland in 1945, during the postwar expulsion of Germans. As a boy he belonged to the Bündische Jugend, part of the German Youth Movement, in Hamburg. He completed his Abitur at the Louisenlund Gymnasium in Rendsburg-Eckernförde. He studied politics and economics in Hamburg, Graz, and Heidelberg. He was active in college political groups and the Außerparlamentarische Opposition.

In June 1968, with Klaus Guerke, he founded Aktion: Biafra Hilfe to draw the attention of the world to the genocide happening in Biafra, in present-day Nigeria. he repeatedly protested Russia's military actions in Chechnya, comparing the bombing of Grozny to Dresden in 1945; in 2005 in advance of the official visit of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg, East Prussia) to celebrate the city's 750th anniversary, he demanded in an open letter that Schröder note the mass expulsions and deaths of Germans there and elsewhere in the former eastern territories of Germany under Stalin; he protested the 2008 Summer Olympics in China on behalf of Tibet, comparing it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin under the Nazis; and he has been credited as one of those most responsible for the Sinti and Roma being recognized as a minority people in Germany. He was also the editor of the journal bedrohte völker (previously pogrom).

Zülch died on 17 March 2023, at the age of 83. Honorary citizenship, City of Sarajevo Honorary Member of the Saxony-Anhalt Federation of the Victims of Stalinist Persecution Honorary Member of the Union of Women camp Detainees of Bosnia Herzegovina Member of the Jury for the Weimar Human Rights Prize Member of the Jury of the "Centre Against Expulsions" Supporters Association

Publications (All available only in German)

Guerke, Klaus and Tilman Zülch. 1968. Biafra, Todesurteil für ein Volk? Berlin: Luttner-Verlang. Biafra, Death sentence for a People Zülch, Tilman. 1979a. Von denen keiner spricht. Verfolgte Minderheiten. Reinbek: Rowohlt. The People That No-one Talks About: Persecuted Minorities Zülch, Tilman. 1979b. In Auschwitz vergast, bis heute verfolgt – zur Situation der Sinti und Roma in Europa. Reinbek: Rowohlt. Gassed in Auschwitz, still persecuted today – on the situation of the Sinti and Roma in Europe Zülch, Tilman. 1991. Völkermord an den Kurden. Hamburg: Luchtehand. Genocide of the Kurds Zülch, Tilman. 1993. Ethnische Säuberungen" – Völkermord für Großserbien. Hamburg: Luchterhand. Sarajevo 1996. Ethnic Cleansing – Genocide in the cause of Greater Serbia Vollmer, Johannes and Tilman Zülch. 1996. Aufstand der Opfer – Verratene Völker zwischen Hitler und Stalin. Göttingen: pogrom Taschenbücher. Resistance of the Victims – Betrayed peoples between Hitler and Stalin