Werner Peter Schmitz-Hille – The Founder

Werner Peter Schmitz-Hille (1914-2008) was a great philanthropist and above all a friend of the poor.

His wish to extend a “helping hand“ to the poor led him to establish two Foundations: the W.P. Schmitz Foundation in Düsseldorf in 1986 and the Schmitz-Hille Foundation in Thun in 1996.

How Werner Peter Schmitz-Hille saw his motivation and aims:

“I set up my Foundations to help people in need. The crucial point for me is reduce hardship and poverty by providing support for the poor to bring them hope, fresh courage to face life and new opportunities for themselves and their families.

I am particularly concerned with the poor and those excluded from society and all too often forgotten: the handicapped and disabled, the old and the sick, orphans, dispossessed minorities and other disadvantaged people.

Experience shows that properly structured “help for self-help” is often the best from of aid that we can provide. That we cannot help everyone, everywhere, goes without saying. But together we are trying to reach as many people as possible.“

It is in this spirit and on these principles that the staff of the Schmitz Foundations carry forward their founder’s work.

We, the staff of the Schmitz Foundations wish to give you every encouragement to cooperate with us and ask you to take these words of our Founder to heart:

“Happiness comes from doing good for others. I have been profoundly grateful to have had the chance to learn this profound truth again and again throughout my long life”.  – Werner Peter Schmitz-Hille