About us

Friedrich Bokern is the founding chairman of "Relief & Reconciliation for Syria AISBL". Born 1977 in Cloppenburg, he grew up in the North-West of Germany with his mother Agnes who introduced him at an early age to the search for the common good. Raised a believing Catholic, he accompanied his mum as early as 1989 during the first humanitarian convoy from Western Germany to Ukraine, back then still part of the Soviet Union. But his political awakening, as he calls it, came a few years later with the Bosnian civil war. As high school student, he was elected school captain at Kolleg St. Thomas of the Dominican order in Vechta where he earned his A-levels in 1997. He organised student protests and vigils in his home town and his state capital in solidarity with the victims of Srebrenica and other places where civilians became victims of genocidal hatred.

Following his civil service at Haus Kreisau in Berlin, Friedrich pursued his academic career in Berlin, Lyon and Paris and earned two master degrees from Sciences Po Paris and the Freie Universität Berlin in political sciences and European studies. During his studies, he worked for a non-profit organisation based in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was also the place of his first encounter with Islam and Judaism. The experience of the Bosnian war has marked him for the rest of his life. He became a convinced European Federalist and started working for inter-religious understanding. He pursued this path in his political work after graduation, first as chief of staff to a Member of the German Bundestag and later in research projects related to European integration and conflict transformation that brought him to the Parisian suburbs, Brussels, and the Arab world.

In 2007, Friedrich started lectures and advanced research on the relationship between religion and politics in the field of conflict studies at Sciences Po Paris. Having been member of the association "Fraternité d'Abraham" in Paris for many years, he decided to spend one sabbatical term in Damascus, Syria, for learning Arabic and for preparing a PhD, which he never finished. The eight months in Syria, were the place of another decisive encounter. In 2008, he met Father Paolo Dall'Oglio at Deir Mar Musa, the ancient monastery in the Syrian desert Paolo had re-established as place of inter-religious encounter and Abrahamic hospitality. Even though Friedrich had to return to Europe to pursue his lectures and studies, this encounter was decisive for what followed.

Friedrich continued to serve at the crossroads of politics and religion, with further research projects that brought him back to Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina and a new engagement at the German Bundestag, assisting the chairman of the European Affairs Committee. Before he could finally write down his PhD thesis related to the topic of Islam in Europe, he received a call to serve as adviser to the new President of the European Parliament, the former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. He stayed with him from 2010 until the end of his mandate in 2012. During these years, the beginning of the Arab Spring and the start of the Syrian Revolution didn't leave him indifferent. Instead of becoming a life-long official at the European Parliament, he decided to return to the region, first as academic observer of the first free elections of Egypt in 2012.

It was in Cairo that the idea for Relief & Reconciliation was born. A befriended journalist, based in Beirut, pushed Friedrich to take action. This was also the moment when Father Paolo Dall'Oglio was expelled from Syria by the Assad regime. The two men came together, first on Skype and later in Bolzano, Italy, where they decided to establish a new association that is combining conflict transformation and humanitarian aid in response to oppression and war in Syria. R&R Syria was born in October 2012 at a first founding assembly in Brussels, legally established on 2 January 2013 and recognised by Royal Decree on 18 December 2013. During the year until his forced disappearance, on 29 July 2013 in Raqqa, Father Paolo and Friedrich organised a dozen of conferences in Beirut, Berlin, Brussels and Paris and participated in meetings of the Syrian opposition in Istanbul, Paris and Cairo.

Friedrich has served as the head of our operations in Lebanon and Syria ever since. Like other volunteers from around the world, he is living in simple conditions at the R&R Peace Centre in the Akkar Governorate of Lebanon without any salary or fee. He is covering his private expenditure with occasional consultancy work in EU affairs or academic lectures.

Headed by our founder and chairperson, Friedrich Bokern, the team at the Peace Centre in North Lebanon is made up of a few permanent staff members, more than 20 local teachers and many volunteers from Lebanon, Syria and around the world. Most of our staff give daily classes to Syrian and Lebanese children in need.

Our international volunteers at the Peace Centre join forces with them to serve the youth of every community.

One of our former teachers in the refugee camps of Lebanon was elected chairman of the new Syrian branch of our organisation, founded in 2025 after the fall of the Assad regime. Mohammed Talal Al-Muhbani heads the team at the Peace Centre in Kadesh, near Qusayr, in the Homs Governorate.

Daily classes have been running at the new Peace Centre inside Syria since January 2026. International volunteers for this sensitive work are recruited among those who have served with us in Lebanon.