It’s raining in Hamburg, one of the Hanseatic city’s classic storms. Sitting in his office in a Hamburg office block, ship owner Peter Krämer blows cigarette smoke into the air and polishes off the last sentences of a letter he is writing to the directors of ARD and ZDF. He says he wants the public broadcasting stations to air an advertising spot that he’s financed to raise awareness about the terrible plight of education in Africa and to raise funds for schools there. The advertisement should be transmitted at the best possible peak viewing time – during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. “That’s when public interest in Africa will be really big at last.”
Peter Krämer has many roles. He studied law and has owned Marine Services since 1982. That’s the shipping company for oil, chemicals and liquid gas that his father founded in 1958. When Peter Krämer took over the company it was in crisis. Today Marine Services has a fleet of 33 ships. In his second role he is the founder of the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of Democracy and International Law. In his third and most important role, now his life’s work, he is the initiator of the UNICEF Schools for Africa project, which he launched with a large donation of one million dollars.
Peter Krämer is a busy man who believes the world can be changed for the better. He is constantly involved, sometimes sponsoring an “elite” that acts on “humane and Christian principles” or combating the miserliness and complacency of the wealthy. He also sees the planned advertising spot as a political instrument. He would like to see the UN Millennium Goal No.2 fulfilled: universal primary education for children by 2015. Although Peter Krämer isn’t helping the whole world, just Africa, he wouldn’t object to someone else helping the rest. It would take 12 billion euros to build the 80,000 primary schools lacking throughout the world. But this target cannot be achieved without the support of international politics. In Peter Krämer’s opinion this is perfectly feasible: “12 billion euros are peanuts to the G8 countries that have already poured billions into the financial sector.”
When the media write about Peter Krämer, it’s a hero story. And he likes that, because he’s very fond of heroes. He names his ships after them. He wanted to name one of them Nelson Mandela, but that wasn’t possible for legal reasons. Still, this didn’t stop him from devoting his energy to overcoming the educational problems on the African continent. He wrote a letter to the Nelson Mandela Foundation asking whether the foundation would be prepared to come on board if he, Krämer, were to donate one million dollars of launch capital and gained the support of UNICEF to implement the idea. The answer was yes.
That was the beginning of an educational success story that people don’t often get to hear: 800 schools built or reconstructed in six countries. Thousands of schools equipped with washrooms and toilet facilities, teachers trained, books donated. 800,000 children without access to education started school with the help of Schools for Africa. All under the UNICEF umbrella, carried out with the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and based on an idea hatched out and conducted from an office in Hamburg. So far Peter Krämer has put five million euros into his project. Money from his own pocket.
Peter Krämer says he’s proud that his idea has gained so much momentum – more than he ever imagined at the outset. The ship owner has already visited many of the schools himself, and all of the photographs show the white-maned visitor amidst black curly-haired children. Peter Krämer looks happy on the pictures, although sometimes rather exhausted. But he’s always at the heart of things. He’s also proud of his meeting with Nelson Mandela. The picture on his office wall depicts the two men hand in hand. “What would you like to say to me?” asked South Africa’s one-time freedom fighter. Mr. Krämer felt like saying something memorable, so he replied: “You are the father of South Africa, but I would like you to become the father of the whole of Africa through my educational project.” He says this made Nelson Mandela visibly happy.
It’s not always easy to follow the ship owner through his labyrinth of thoughts and ideas, when all you really want to talk about are the successes of his school project, about facts, figures and motivation. While the listener is still lingering somewhere in Africa, Peter Krämer is back into German politics, calling for responsible globalization and environmental awareness, telling anecdotes from his youth. His parents’ culture of democratic debate at home had a positive influence on him. Then he reveals the key to his motivation: he wants to give back everything that life has given him. Many privileges, but above all education.
Then he’s off again, back on the topic of Africa, philosophizing, surrounded by the smoke of a new cigarette. Primary school education is the keystone to healthy social development. An educated Africa means a strong Africa. “If you educate a generation, you have a confident generation. Just think about it: a school in Africa costs only 40,000 euros.”
Schools for Africa wanted to reach a target of 50 million dollars this year. But it’s already arrived at 63 million, and Peter Krämer has asked UNICEF to expand its list of countries. Plans are under way for Mali, Madagascar, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and, if the political situation permits, for Sudan as well. Peter Krämer doesn’t believe that humanity will fall by the roadside in these times of economic crisis. “The small donors will always remain true to their idealism. People draw closer together in times of need. Maybe people will now move together globally.”
