Paul Oestreicher

Paul Oestreicher OBE (born 29 September 1931) is an Anglican priest, Quaker, peace and human rights activist.

In 1938, shortly after he began school, his family had to leave their home in Germany due to the Jewish ancestry of his father, the paediatrician Paul Oestreicher (1896–1981).

He then moved to the University of Bonn for a two-year Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship to study Christianity and Marxism under professor Helmut Gollwitzer.

During this time he appointed Deaconess Elsie Baker to lead the pastoral work of the parish, well ahead of the ordination of women to the priesthood.

Later, at the invitation of Desmond Tutu, he helped to bring an end to the armed conflict between the African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party.

In 1993, he spent a sabbatical year as Humboldt Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, studying Church-state relations in East Germany.

They first met after Oestreicher helped get Einhorn released from arrest and imprisonment by the Stasi for befriending a women's dissident peace group.

In 2010, Einhorn and Oestreicher both taught for one semester at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, of which they are still Research Affiliates.

In 2011, Oestreicher held the keynote speech on the abolition of war at the World Council of Churches International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in Kingston, Jamaica.

Oestreicher was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to peace, human rights and reconciliation.