Uloba founder Bente Skansgård referred to Independent Living pioneer Adolf Ratzka as her guiding star. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on July 21.
Image description: Adolf Ratzka held a doctorate in urban land ownership and travelled to many countries to give lectures on Independent Living. Here, depicted at the BPA conference organized by Uloba in 2016. Photo: Finn Ståle Felberg
“A leader has passed away. We received the news of Adolf’s passing with shock and great sorrow, but also with profound gratitude. The European Independent Living movement has lost its strongest and most important voice,” says Secretary General Vibeke Marøy Melstrøm.
Adolf Ratzka was 80 years old and lived in the Stockholm area with his wife Doro. Together, they had a daughter. The pioneer was primarily known in the disability movement for bringing the Independent Living ideology to Scandinavia.
“I met Adolf in the early ’90s, and he became a role model and mentor for me. I quickly gained respect for him. For his expertise, for the valuable experience he carried with him and shared, and for his ability to think strategically and innovatively,” says the Secretary General.
The father of the Scandinavian Independent Living movement
Referred to as The father of the Scandinavian Independent Living movement, Adolf Ratzka founded STIL (today known as the Foundation for Independent Living, originally Stockholm Independent Living) in Sweden, was Chairman of the organization until 1995, and chaired the Independent Living Institute (ILI). Ratzka was also the first Chairman of the European Independent Living Network (ENIL). In 2008, he received the European Citizen’s Prize and Uloba’s Pride Award Stolthetsprisen in 2017.
“I have been particularly impressed by his ability to convey the Independent Living ideology, the ideology that forms Uloba’s foundation, naturally and in simple words” says Melstrøm.
“I have sat on the board of ENIL with Adolf, had the pleasure of participating in courses, meetings, and seminars with him. Not least, I have proudly walked by his side during Freedom Drive, ENIL’s largest activist campaign, and in our own “Stolthetsparaden”. Today, more than 4,000 people can live our lives freely because of our assistance scheme, BPA. It would not have been possible without Adolf,” says Vibeke Marøy Melstrøm.
Bente Skansgård’s leading star
Through his close friendship with Uloba founder Bente Skansgård, Adolf Ratzka helped lay the foundation for Citizen-Controlled Personal Assistance as an equality tool in Norway.
“When I think of Uloba, I think of Bente,” he said in an interview in Uloba’s anniversary book Spydspissen from 2022.
He became disabled at the age of 17 and had to live in an institution in his home country Germany for five years. He then travelled to the US on a scholarship, completed his education there, and later moved to Sweden to finish his dissertation on Urban Land Ownership. In Sweden, he became increasingly interested in the living conditions of people with disabilities, and in 1983 he held the first Independent Living conference in Scandinavia. He invited prominent figures such as Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann, and it was here that he met the young Bente Skansgård. The conference marked the beginning of a long, close friendship. Bente Skansgård referred to Ratzka as both her own and Uloba’s guiding star.
“We are many who can thank Adolf for his efforts over so many years,” says Uloba’s Secretary General.
Our thoughts and profound condolences go out to his closest family and friends during this difficult time, to the Swedish Independent Living movement that has lost a pioneer and leader, and to the entire European movement for the loss of a founding father for the rights and assistance of people with disabilities.