Michael Schumacher visited the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo on a UNESCO-backed initiative to raise money for a children’s hospital.
Michael Schumacher is loved across the world for his on-track and off-track ventures. He is remembered for his achievements in motorsports but also for his humanitarian work.
The 7-time World Champion was a UNESCO Ambassador. He donated $1.5 million to several UNESCO projects, including the construction of a school in Dakar (Senegal) and improvements to the “Baraka” slum in the city.
But one of Schumi’s bravest acts of service was when he visited the city of Sarajevo in 1996. The F1 driver paid a visit to the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War.
Between 1992 and 1996, Sarajevo was seized by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian war. Nearly 10,000 people lost their lives including over 1,500 children.
He visited the city in an aid campaign for children mutilated in the war and visited Sarajevo in 1996 and 1997. He supported a hospital for child victims of the siege in Sarajevo, which specialises in caring for amputees.
He organised a football match, visited several hospitals to pay for surgery, and simply hung out with the youngsters to lift their spirits. The German’s efforts were remembered by the citizens for decades.
This was a dangerous mission for the F1 driver as the region was devastated by an ongoing war. But he told reporters his biggest motive was to help the people “go back to a normal life.”
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Michael Schumacher’s mural unveiled in Sarajevo
Michael Schumacher is still remembered by citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital city Sarajevo more than 25 years after his visit to the city. A massive mural of F1 legend was revealed on the German’s 53rd birthday in 2022.
The Ferrari racer’s image has been painted on a side of a building in Sarajevo. It’s made by Bosnian artists Vedran Poricanin, Emir Music, Rijad Hadzic and Benjamin Cengic. The project was supported by the German cultural association Goethe-Institut.
Our beautiful city of #Sarajevo will dedicate a mural to the amazing human being #MichaelSchumacher | Schumacher visited Bosnia during the War in 1994. and spent time with children in besieged Sarajevo. Thank you, man! pic.twitter.com/UJ2LidMr8S
— Ika Ferrer Gotić (@IkaFerrerGotic) December 30, 2021
The artists said, “We drew this mural so that the people of Sarajevo never forget their true friends.” One of the roads leading to Sarajevo International Airport was renamed “Michael Schumacher street” by the city.
Schumacher was inducted as an honorary citizen of Sarajevo in 2014. This just shows how dearly loved and respected Schumi was by the people of the city he visited in.
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