Role models – Thomas Paul Schirrmacher

His All Holines the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew

My great grandfather Friedrich-Wilhelm Schirrmacher, who for more than 50 years was a history professor in Rostock and exceptionally gifted teacher, about whom I have published various items

Two sociologists of religion in conversation in Istanbul in April 2009: With me is perhaps the most important representative of my field of study, Prof. Peter Berger, from Boston University, Massachusetts, USA

A real model of involvement to help the poor, my longtime friend Colonel V. Doner (“The Samaritan Strategy”), pictured here in 2004 in one of our schools in Nicaragua

Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling, formerly the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, has more than once risked his career and has been a leading thinker for me with respect to mediation between ethnic groups at odds with each other; pictured here at the 2009 Global Media Forum

Prof. Dr. Ralph Winter (1924-2009), Pasadena, California, USA, since 1979 my unforgettable mentor in missiology, cultural anthropology and alternative theological instruction

Archbishop Athanasios, the de facto Patriarch of the Albanian Orthodox Church, built this church up from sratch after 1990

Hermann Groehe, German minister of health, former general secretary of Mrs Merkels party, dedicated Christian in government, that pushed into religious freedom research (2014)

The pastor of the church of my childhood and youth played a major role for my personal faith.