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In Memory of Dagi Kieffer

Original text published on SÖL.

Dagi Kieffer was born on August 25th, 1925 in Karlsruhe and grew up in a vineyard in the south of the Palatinate. The foreign language secretary, translator and mother of four children has supported the foundation founded in 1962 by her husband, Karl Werner Kieffer, from the start. 

Since 1962 Dagi Kieffer has been a member of various foundation committees, 1975 chairwoman of the SÖL board of trustees and from 1999 to 2015 member of the foundation council of SÖL. 

She was also active in other organizations: From 1976 she worked for many years on the board of IFOAM - Organics International and from 1984 to 1988 on the board of the German Nature Conservation Ring (DNR), where she was particularly involved in the recovery of the soil began. Numerous awards attest to the commitment and timeliness of their statements and impulses.

  • The Kieffers received the Federal Nature Conservation Award in 1988 (Bodo Manstein Medal),

  • In 1996 Dagi Kieffer received the Federal Cross of Merit for her longstanding commitment to environmental, nature and health protection.

  • In the same year, the Kieffers were awarded the Francé Medal of Merit in gold for their pioneering work and their great merits in maintaining soil fertility and the spread of organic farming.

  • In 2007 Dagi Kieffer received the Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and in 2012 the EuroNatur Prize.

It was always important to Dagi Kieffer to bring the various associations of organic farming and viticulture to one table. And so on the part of the foundation the establishment of the AGÖL (ArbeitsGemeinschaft Ökologischer Landbau - successor organization BÖLW Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft e.V. and the BÖW (Bundesverband Ökologischer Weinbau - today ECOVIN) was prepared.

Their initiatives have always been characterized by the commitment to preserving the rural Family businesses and for an environmentally friendly, sustainable agricultural culture as the basis of our culture. As a result, at the end of 1998 she initiated the purchase of a seminar farm in Queichhambach in her old home and worked actively on its further development.

Dagi Kieffer died at the age of 95 on January 26th, 2021 in Wachenheim.