Wieland Hoban is a German-British Jewish composer, translator, and activist based in Germany. He currently serves as the Chairman of Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East (Jüdische Stimme), the most prominent progressive Jewish organization in Germany.
As a composer, Hoban’s works have been featured at international contemporary music festivals such as Darmstadt. As a translator, he has rendered the philosophical works of masters like Theodor W. Adorno into English. His deep background in the Frankfurt School allows him to analyze German social power structures and discourse manipulation with critical rigor.
Wieland Hoban’s activism in Germany is defined by direct presence and legal resistance. As a leader, he spearheaded the legal protest against the Berliner Sparkasse for its illegal freezing of the group’s bank account, condemning it as a form of political dispossession. In April 2024, he co-organized the Palestine Congress in Berlin and remained at the site when police forcibly raided and shut down the gathering. During the subsequent protests, he was repeatedly detained for defying state bans, with images of his arrest becoming a symbol of German state suppression of Jewish dissent. Through extensive translations and speeches, he works to deconstruct the political logic that uses support for Israel as a form of German historical redemption.
Hoban’s core philosophy lies in exposing the nature of German “philo-Zionism.” He has noted: “If ‘Never Again’ applies only to a specific group, it has already lost its moral force. Germany should not attempt to pay its historical debts by stripping Palestinians of their fundamental rights.”