Hardly any intellectual in German-speaking countries has been as important for social movements, trade unions, students, climate activists and human rights activists as Jean Ziegler in recent decades. Born in Thun, Switzerland, in 1934, Ziegler became a sociologist and UN employee. He was a Geneva member of the National Council for the Social Democratic Party and achieved world fame through his numerous books. For many decades he campaigned for the people who Frantz Fanon called the “wretched of the earth”. First as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, then as Vice-President of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council, he fought against hunger and oppression, for human rights and peace. He took on the Swiss banks and supported liberation movements in the Global South since the 1950s. I had the privilege of accompanying him on his travels and working with him.
