Rüdiger Nehberg, also known as 'Sir Vival', (4 May 1935 – 1 April 2020) was a German

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

activist,

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

survival Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...

expert. He was the founder and chairman of the anti- FGM organization TARGET, and chairman of the organizations Friends of Peoples Close to Nature (German section – '')'' and ' (Save the Rainforest). He lived in

Rausdorf Rausdorf is a municipality in the district of Stormarn, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and ...

near

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Nehberg described himself as having "No astrological sign, no church, no hair, and no clip in the ear (the latter means: he is a maverick)".

Life and work

Nehberg was born in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

. After school, Nehberg initially became a

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; feminine pâtissière, ) is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, bakeries, b ...

by trade, but increasingly turned his attention to outdoor

. He would finally sell his three bakeries and live from his books and lectures. In 1972, together with two friends, one of whom was shot dead in an ambush, he became one of the first to travel the length of the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major Tributary, tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the wa ...

in a home-made boat. Since 1980, he has been involved in defending the interests of the

Yanomami The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people of the Americas, indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. ...

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

. With his enterprise, "The Tree" (crossing the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

on a fir-tree in 2000), he contributed to the provision of a protected reservation for the Yanomami. In 1981 – followed by a camera team – he crisscrossed

without any special equipment and relying for his sustenance solely on what he was able to find in nature. In 1987, Nehberg crossed the

in a pedal boat. He was also one of the first to discredit the fraudulent " Tatunca Nara" story, which had gained publicity in the German and Brazilian media. A German worker named Hans Günther Hauck left his home near Nuremberg in 1967, moved into the Brazilian jungle, and proclaimed himself the leader of the secret Ugha-Mongulala tribe, which had lived hidden in the secret jungle city of Akakor for 15,000 years. Neither the city nor the tribe ever existed. Nevertheless, many filmmakers and adventure-loving men and women believed Nara, and three people even died during Tatunca-led jungle excursions. The circumstances that led to their deaths have never been fully revealed. In Nehberg's book ''Der selbstgemachte Häuptling'' (''The Self-Made Chieftain''), the whole story of this mysterious man and his deeds can be read. In September 2000, he founded the

organization TARGET to prevent the practice of

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. Prevalence of female ge ...

(FGM). For his commitment to endangered peoples, Nehberg was awarded the '' Bundesverdienstkreuz'' ("Federal Cross for Merit"). In November 2006, TARGET organized and financed a conference under the patronage of the Egyptian Great Mufti Ali Gomaa at

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. As a result of the conference, leading authorities of Islamic law denounced genital mutilation. In March 2009, Rüdiger Nehberg and Tarafa Baghajati met Sheikh Prof. Dr.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi Yusuf al-Qaradawi (; or ''Yusuf al-Qardawi''; 9 September 1926 – 26 September 2022) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn ...

in Qatar, one of the best known Islamic contemporary authority scholars. They obtained a

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

issued by the recognized legal scholar, stating that genital mutilation of girls is referred to and forbidden as "devil's work" because it is directed against the ethics of Islam. In August 2009 Nehberg married his second wife. In February 2011, Rüdiger Nehberg and Tarafa Baghajati met with Sheikh Prof. Dr.

Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti Muhammad Said Ramadan Al-Bouti () (1929 – 21 March 2013) was a renowned Syrian Sunni Muslim scholar and author. He was served as professor and vice dean at the Damascus University, also serving as the imam of the Umayyad Mosque. Al-Bouti wr ...

and obtained a similar fatwa against female genital mutilation. In 2014 he gave a TEDx talk about his work to prevent FGM.

Works

* ''Survival-Lexikon'', * ''Drei Mann, ein Boot, zum Rudolfsee'', * ''Abenteuer am Blauen Nil'', * ''Mit dem Baum über den Atlantik'', * ''Die Kunst zu Überleben, Survival'', * ''Survival'', * ''Survival-Abenteuer vor der Haustür'', * ''Überleben ums Verrecken'', * ''Echt verrückt!'', * ''Die Yanomami-Indianer'', * ''Abenteuer Urwald'', * ''Abenteuergeschichten'', * ''Rüdiger Nehberg – Die Autobiographie'',

References

External links

Rüdiger Nehberg's Homepage (German)

TARGET Human Rights Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nehberg, Rudiger 1935 births 2020 deaths Businesspeople from Bielefeld German human rights activists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Activists against female genital mutilation German health activists Writers from Bielefeld Survivalists