New Chairperson at Csilla von Boeselager Foundation Antoinette Wendt elected as new Chairperson of the Board

At an extraordinary members’ meeting of the Csilla von Boeselager Foundation on 5 May 2026, Antoinette Wendt was elected as the new Chair of the Board. She succeeds Dr Raphael Hoensbroech, who is stepping down from the honorary chairmanship after 19 years. Antoinette Wendt has served on the Board of the Csilla von Boeselager Foundation for more than ten years and has previously been responsible for donor relations. She brings with her extensive national and international leadership experience.

Under Raphael Hoensbroech’s leadership, the volume of the foundation’s emergency relief work increased significantly, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Speaking at the members’ meeting, Hoensbroech said that responsibilities and demands had grown steadily. “Especially in Ukraine, we have been able to provide emergency aid to tens of thousands of people since the outbreak of the war. I am deeply grateful that, through the foundation and its many donors, we have been able to do this.” He emphasised that all administrative costs continued to be covered by investment income, ensuring that 100 per cent of donations still flow directly into emergency relief. Antoinette Wendt also intends to uphold this successful approach in the future. “The foundation enjoys a high level of trust well beyond the region because none of the donated funds are absorbed by administration,” she said on Tuesday in Vosswinkel.

Raphael Hoensbroech will remain associated with the foundation as a member of the extended Board. “It is time for me to be able to pass the main responsibility into other hands, but I will continue to support the foundation in the background – it is simply a part of my life,” he said. As a child, he packed relief parcels together with Csilla Boeselager in Vosswinkel; following her death in 1994, he established his own disaster relief initiative in Poland and eventually took over the chairmanship from Csilla’s widower, Dr Wolfhard Boeselager, in 2007.

His deputy, Ildikó Ketteler‑Boeselager, expressed her great anticipation on Tuesday of working with the new Chair. She also thanked Hoensbroech for his many years of outstanding commitment, describing him as the “perfect person for this wide‑ranging honorary role”, and wished him every success in his professional career. Since 2018, Hoensbroech is the Intendant and Managing Director of the Konzerthaus Dortmund.