“The Centro Incontri Umani is a heritage site. It carries on the spirit of my parents and their lineage, which brings in a love of the arts, especially music, scholarship, and their wish to benefit others and to beautify and heal the world a bit.” Dr Angela Hobart.
Angela is the youngest daughter of Edmund and Margianna Stinnes VS Gaevernitz. She is a Holocaust survivor. Angela and her family fled Germany in 1941 for America. Angela was raised in Haverford College, Pennsylvania, USA, where she lived with her family. Today she lives in London.
Her father’s homes in Ticino, Southern Switzerland, were used for international peace conferences during World War 1 and World War 2. The Secret Surrender negotiations involved meetings between German and Allied generals and led to the end of WW2 in 1945.
Her academic journey led her to become a renowned social anthropologist. She was awarded a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1979 and later received a research fellowship from UCL. Her expertise in Southeast Asian studies was recognised both at Udayana University in Bali and, closer to home, at the British Museum where she gave many lectures over the years.
Angela did research in Bali, Indonesia, for forty years. She taught and wrote many outstanding books on the island, including Healing Performances of Bali, which focuses on indigenous healing systems that are rapidly disappearing in the modernised and industrialized world.
Angela continued her father’s work for the last forty years. She set up Centro Incontri Umani, a recognised Swiss Foundation located on Monte Verità, which means Mountain of Truth in Italian. The Centre encourages international understanding, respect, compassion, and peace and carries on the spirit of her parents and lineage.
Angela worked as a psychotherapist with Freedom from Torture and at the Helen Bamber Foundation. A passionate humanitarian and philanthropist, Angela founded the Sutasoma Trust in 1990. The first projects she supported were Amnesty International and Exceed Worldwide, formerly the Cambodia Trust for victims of landmines.
