Biography of Dr Dagmar Pruin
The Protestant theologian was managing director of the Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (ASF – Action Reconciliation Service for Peace) from 2013 to 2020, and since 2007 has also been director of “Germany Close Up” (GCU), an encounter programme for German and American Jews. The focus of her work to date has been on issues relating to encounter and reconciliation, the relationship between religion and politics, Christian peace work, interreligious dialogue from an international perspective and Christian anti-Semitism. Since the 1st of March 2021, Dr Pruin has been Chair of the Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V. (EWDE – Protestant Agency for Diakonie and Development), alternating on a rota basis with Ulrich Lilie, President of Diakonie Deutschland.
Further personal information
Dagmar Pruin studied Protestant theology in Hamburg, Göttingen and Berlin, and Jewish studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a research assistant to Rüdiger Liwak, Professor for Old Testament and the History of Israel in the Faculty of Theology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, she taught theology and gender studies at undergraduate and graduate level and led excursions to the Middle East.
After receiving her PhD in 2004, a number of study trips and other teaching activities took Pruin to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Washington D.C. and Stellenbosch. As a founding member of the “Religion and Politics” research department at the Humboldt University in Berlin, she also chaired conferences in Berlin, Brussels and Washington, D.C.
In 2007, she developed the “Germany Close Up” programme at the New Synagogue Berlin / Centrum Judaicum Foundation, which relocated there when she took over as managing director of the ASF. After completing her probationary ministry alongside her work, Dagmar Pruin was ordained in 2014 as a minister of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO).
