“And if no one follows you, go alone”

This is the title of Jürgen Todenhöfer’s latest book. A friend recommended it to me with the caveat: “It’s impressive – but you may find it a bit reckless.” Having read it, I would say it is indeed impressive, and above all fearless. Todenhöfer possesses a strong sense of self-confidence, and given what he has accomplished over a long and eventful life, that confidence is well earned.

Professionally accomplished, socially committed

After earning a doctorate in law, Todenhöfer worked briefly as a judge before being elected to the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1972, where he served until 1990. During that time, he was the Union parties’ spokesperson on development and arms control policy. From 1987 to 2008, he was deputy chairman of the Burda Media Group.
    Alongside his professional career – and continuing to this day – Todenhöfer travelled extensively, particularly in Asia, and became deeply involved, both personally and financially, in peace initiatives and humanitarian aid. In 2020, he founded his own political party, Team Todenhöfer, drawing public attention to his political and humanist agenda during the 2021 and 2025 election campaigns.
    His latest book can be read as an autobiography, but it is also a reflection on six decades of global history. Only a few elements of this larger mosaic can be highlighted here. As a student in Paris, Todenhöfer opposed France’s war in Algeria. Wanting to understand the conflict first-hand, he travelled to Algeria with very limited means, determined to speak not only with the French authorities but also with the Algerian freedom fighters. This principle – going beyond merely “listening” to the other side, but instead meeting them, speaking with them – became a constant throughout his life. Especially in contexts of armed conflict and violence, he sought to persuade all parties that nonviolence and respect for the supposed – or perceived – enemy offered a better path toward agreement.

Connected to the powerful…

As a member of parliament, Todenhöfer was able to refine his exceptional talent for communication and dialogue, whether with allies or adversaries. Later, acting independently as a journalist and public intellectual, he spoke with an extraordinary range of political leaders – often to the dismay of his critics. Among them were Augusto Pinochet, King Faisal, Fidel Castro, Indira Gandhi, Zia-ul-Haq, Mikhail Gorbachev, Richard Perle, President Bashar al-Assad, and even leaders of the so-called Islamic State.
    In Germany, too, he built an extensive personal network and was closely acquainted with figures such as Helmut Kohl, Wolfgang Schäuble, Angela Merkel, and Hans-Dietrich Genscher. In all these encounters, Todenhöfer consistently distinguishes between personal impressions and political judgment. His pacifist and humanist outlook allow him to seek dialogue with anyone – including real or perceived enemies – without flattering them or compromising his principles.
    On the contrary, his engagements were often openly critical. His private visit to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose regime he unequivocally rejected, was undertaken with the aim of securing relief for political prisoners. In Tehran, he addressed students directly, calling on the clerical regime to grant greater freedoms. Even during his perilous visit to Islamic State territory in Iraq in 2015 – where he narrowly escaped death – he made no attempt to conceal his opposition to IS ideology, instead urging restraint and an end to violence.

… and to those without power

This leads to the heart of Todenhöfer’s work: personal commitment. Anyone who wants to witness injustice first-hand and attempt to change it must, as the saying goes, be willing to “get their hands dirty.” For Todenhöfer, this has meant days of marching, hazardous journeys in unreliable vehicles, and reliance on local guides whose trustworthiness was not always assured – whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, eastern Congo, Syria, Gaza (which he visited in 2015; by 2025 Israel had barred his entry), Iran, or Bangladesh. From there, he even crossed illegally into Myanmar under fire to see for himself the burned villages of the Rohingya.
    A remarkable lack of fear and strong physical conditioning have enabled him to undertake these missions well into old age, often at grave personal risk and sometimes resulting in serious injury.
    Most importantly, Todenhöfer’s engagement is not abstract. He provides direct assistance to the people he encounters: severely injured war victims, especially children, for whom he arranges medical treatment unavailable locally; young girls forced to work in coltan mines in eastern Congo, for whom he helps make the seemingly impossible possible – a school education. Through such projects, he repeatedly gives victims of international politics a renewed sense of purpose and hope. At times, this commitment has even taken precedence over campaigning for his own political party.
    He has founded orphanages in Afghanistan and initiated numerous other aid projects, supporting them with his own financial resources. He pays for his travels himself in order to remain independent, despite frequent offers of sponsorship. His professional success, including income from his books, has made him wealthy – and he regards that wealth as a responsibility to be shared.

At the centre of life – and committed to life

Helmut Kohl once remarked, “Todenhöfer is not really a politician at all. He is an idealist.” “I can live with that,” Todenhöfer has replied. Yet he is not an idealist detached from reality. He understands how the world operates, even if one may not agree with all of his political positions. He has held positions of responsibility in both high-level politics and business. He raised a family – often with too little time for them, by his own admission – but his two daughters are socially engaged, and his son frequently accompanies him as a photographer on his dangerous journeys.
    Todenhöfer has always stood at the centre of life. And he has remained faithful to his core convictions:
    1. There are no just wars.
    2. Racism violates every principle of our civilization.
    3. Wealth entails responsibility.
    He does not merely profess these beliefs; he lives by them.
    Respect, Mr. Todenhöfer – and thank you. You have saved lives and given people the courage to face their own. You have shown that action is possible even when one feels powerless. And you have demonstrated that even those in positions of political power can still be reached on a human level. •

First published at demokratie-ist-schoen.de of 6 October 2025