Rupert Neudeck (14 May 1939 – 31 May 2016) was a German journalist and humanitarian.
He was born in the Danzig, Free City of Danzig (today's Gdańsk, Poland) and lived in Danzig-Langfuhr (Wrzeszcz) until 1945. When German civilians were evacuated from eastern Germany his family had received tickets for the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, which left Gdingen (Gdynia) on 31 January 1945 and was torpedoed 3 hours later, but missed the ship for two hours.[1] Thus, he was a refugee during his childhood.
After studying various subjects in West Germany, including law and Catholic theology, he became a journalist. He was a noted correspondent for Deutschlandfunk in radio journalism.
In 1979, Rupert Neudeck and his wife Christel, along with a group of friends, formed the committee "A ship for Vietnam" and chartered the commercial freighter "Cap Anamur for a rescue mission in South-East Asia. The mission eventually saved more than 10,000 Vietnamese boat people.[2] Following the Cap Anamur missions, he continued his humanitarian work on various other projects that aid refugees.[3] He also founded "Grünhelme e.V." (Green Helmets; voluntary association) for rebuilding schools, villages, and ambulances in destroyed regions.[4] He was listed on Unsere Besten ("Our Best"), a German poll similar to 100 Greatest Britons.
He was featured in an interview on the Vietnamese entertainment show Paris by Night 77, which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the work of Cap Anamur.
