Ernst Sieber facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ernst Sieber
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Ernst Sieber in 2007
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| Born | 24 February 1927 Horgen, Switzerland
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| Died | 19 May 2018 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Alma mater | University of Zürich |
| Occupation | Swiss pastor, social worker, writer and former politician |
| Years active | 1957–2018 |
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Notable work
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Founder of the Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber foundation and relief organisation |
| Spouse(s) | Sonja Sieber-Vassalli |
| Children | 5 |
| Awards | Ernst Sieber#Awards |
Ernst Sieber (German pronunciation: [ɛʁnst ˈziːbɐ]; 24 February 1927 – 19 May 2018) was a Swiss pastor and social activist who was one of the most popular and best known personalities associated with the Swiss Reformed Church. He was ordained in the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zürich.
In 1963 he initiated the basis for the relief organisation Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber, founded in 1988 for "disadvantaged people, to help to alleviate the hardships around disease, violence and homelessness". Sieber wrote books about his work as social worker to finance the foundation.
From 1991 to 1995 he represented the citizens of the Canton of Zürich as member of the Evangelische Volkspartei (EVP) political party in the Nationalrat, the lower Swiss parliament's house.
Early life
Born as the son of Katharina Josepha née Hess and Hans, Sieber was raised in the municipality of Horgen on the Zürichsee, and was a citizen of Zürich. Sieber called himself a "dreamy child, I preferred to go fishing with my brother than to go to school", but also he said on occasion of an interview in February 2015: "The sense of justice and for the most vulnerable people in society has always been in me".
Sieber first worked as a farmhand in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and graduated from the former Zürich agricultural school Strickhof in the present-day Irchelpark in 1947. In 1950 he gained the Maturität diploma on a second-chance education. He decided to study theology and was ordinated at the Theological Faculty of the University of Zürich in 1956.
Career
As a vicar, community and prison chaplain, and priest Sieber engaged for the "people on the margins of our society". After his tenure between 1956 and 1967 in Uitikon-Waldegg, in 1967 he became the parish priest in Zürich-Altstetten where he worked until his retirement as pastor in 1992.
In Winter 1963 Sieber initiated a shelter for homeless and marginalized people in Zürich-Aussersihl.
Supported by his wife Sonja Sieber Vassalli and many other helpers, Sieber established a wide range of projects in the city of Zürich and in its agglomeration. From 1988 to 1992 he was appointed as dean of the city of Zürich links der Limmat, meaning the area on the left bank of the Limmat. Between 1991 and 1995 the popular pastor was elected (for the EVP political party) by the citizens of the canton of Zürich as their representative in the Nationalrat, the Swiss parliament's lower house. For his life's work Sieber was awarded by Zürich's mayor Corine Mauch on behalf of the city council with Staatssiegel von Zürich, the seal of the former city republic of Zürich, on 18 September 2013.
Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber
In 1963, Sieber established the first homeless community in a bunker in Zürich-Aussersihl. The later charity Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber (SWS) started numerous initiatives over the decades, among them Sune-Dörfli, Sune-Egge, Ur-Dörfli, Sune-Stube, Pfuusbus, and the Brothausen settlement in Zürich-Affoltern for homeless people, or food supplement for poor people in cooperation with Swiss retailers. In 1988 the foundation was formally established, to support, "committed on the basis of the Gospel...to help to alleviate the hardships around disease, violence and homelessness." The foundation calls its work an "update of the biblical message in view of social distress and the distress of individuals who are mentally and physically suffering, socially injured, homeless and refuged". To give pastoral, social, medical and material assistance, as well as to ensure partnership and mutually complementary aid, SWS states that it cooperates with individuals, private, civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
Death
Sieber died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 91 in Triemli Hospital in Zurich.
Awards (excerpt)
- 2017: Prix-Courage-Lifetime-Award
- 2013: Staatssiegel von Zürich
- 1987: Honorary Doctorate of the Theological Faculty of the University of Zürich
Literature
- Daniel J. Schütz: Der Pfarrer: Begegnungen mit Ernst Sieber. Zytglogge, Oberhofen 2008, ISBN: 978-3-7296-0753-8.
