Bernhard Ehlen SJ (born March 5, 1939 in Berlin) is a German Jesuit and founder of Doctors for Developing Countries (now German Doctors).
Ehlen entered the Jesuit order in 1958. After graduating from Canisius College in Berlin, he studied philosophy, theology, and education. After his ordination in 1968, he taught religion at Canisius College from 1970 to 1971. He then worked as a youth pastor in Hanover until 1975, as well as a religion teacher at the Bismarck School and Tellkampf School high schools[2], and as a teacher and youth worker in Berlin until 1981. From 1982 to 1983, he was a teacher and youth pastor at the Sankt Ansgar School in Hamburg.
In 1981, he also joined the Cap Anamur Committee and worked as a project coordinator in refugee camps in Somalia. These experiences gave rise to the idea for the aid organization “Doctors for Developing Countries,” which he founded in 1983. He served on its management board until 2006. His order released him for this role in the spirit of the option for the poor. From 1986 to 2010 (he resigned), he was a member of the four-member board of “Doctors for Developing Countries.”
From 1984 to 2010, he lived in the Ignatiushaus in Frankfurt am Main[3] and now lives in the Jesuit Caritas retirement home in Cologne-Mülheim, and since 2022 in the Rupert Mayer Community in Munich.
