As a representative of the , Ludwig Geißel participated in various charity projects, often in ecumenical collaboration with bodies outside the Evangelical Church structure. The more memorable of these included looking after refugees from Hungary in the wake of the 1956 uprising. He was a co-initiator, and subsequently the leader, of the initiative, focused in the first instance on the famines in India. He was involved in organising mass evacuation airlifts from Nigeria to Gabon of child starvation victims during the Biafran War. He was also involved in earthquake relief work in Turkey, Greece, Iran and Italy.