Roeder, Hans and Sonja : Born in East Prussia, Hans-Hermann Robert Roeder and Sonja Roeder met and were married in West Germany shortly after World War II. In 1954, they emigrated to Canada. Settling in Winnipeg, they both became active in German Canadian and multicultural community life.
Hans Roeder was for many years active in the German Canadian Business and Professional Association. Between 1959 and 1974 he served as editor of the association's publication, the German Canadian Business Review. Between 1968 and 1974 he served as president of the Canada Press Club, the umbrella organization for the ethnic press in Manitoba. He also was active in the Canada Ethnic Press Federation, which he served as treasurer for a number of years. An engineer by profession, Hans Roeder was for many years active as a member of the Prairie Implement Manufacturers Association Metric Committee.
Sonja Roeder was immersed in the multicultural community in Manitoba, and worked tirelessly to promote multiculturalism and human rights locally, provincially and nationally. She was a member of the Citizenship Council of Manitoba for fifteen years, five of which were spent as its president. She was the founder and an early president of the International Centre of Winnipeg, a centennial project of the Citizenship Council of Manitoba. Sonja was a board member of the Canadian Citizenship Council and, in 1972, became the president of its successor-organization, the Canadian Citizenship Federation. While serving the last year of her two-year term in that office, she assumed additional responsibilities as executive director of the International Centre, a post which she held until 1975.
In addition to the above, she was also associated with a number of other local provincial and national organizations. She was a board member of the Children's Aid Society of Winnipeg, the Manitoba Human Rights Association, and the Community Welfare Planning Council of Winnipeg. She was active in the Women's Progressive Conservative Association, was appointed to the Minister's Advisory Committee on Multiculturalism for Manitoba, and served as a member on the "Canada Week Committee." In her honour, the Sonja Roeder House was created at 271 Archibald street in Winnipeg, a welcome centre and temporary housing facility for refugees in Winnipeg. Somewhere around 2005 it became the Union Gospel Mission, Charis Centre.
Hans Roeder passed away in 2007, while Sonja passed away in 1975.
