Conversations with the Winners: Stefan Schirmer

A virtual events from Widen the Circle and the Leo Baeck Institute

Stefan Schirmer has been the guiding force behind making Mainz-based German football club FC Ente Bagdad into a beacon for diversity, acceptance, and equality, as well is in helping people recognize and understand Jewish history and culture. The club organizes many popular remembrance events, particularly during Mainz Remembrance Weeks, and reaches out to “new Germans” from war-torn countries including Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine who have found refuge in Mainz. For one match, the entire team wore kippahs, in solidarity with a person who had recently been attacked.

We talk with Stefan Schirmer as part of our series Conversations with the Winners, featuring 2023 Obermayer Award winners. It took place April 19, 2023.