Alexander Gunther Friedrich

Alexander Gunther Friedrich (born November 6, 1923 in Alt Lietzegöricke , Königsberg District ) is a German forest scientist (Land Use Policy and Industrialization) and diplomat (United Nations Executive Secretary).

Christian Julius Friedrich (1740–1838) was the great-grandfather three times. In 1758 he walked as guard cuirassier Friedrich the Great across the Oder near Güstebiese / Alt Lietzegöricke on the march to victory over the Russians near Zorndorf near Küstrin (Seven Years War 1756– 1763).

Family for generations in the forest and wood industry.

Life

After graduating from high school, Friedrich served in the Second World War as a soldier in the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division , most recently as a first lieutenant in the General Staff North, wounded several times and awarded the Iron Cross 1st class . After the end of the war, Friedrich completed a degree in economics and natural sciences at the University of Hamburg under Franz Heske , which he completed in 1950 with a doctorate on the forestry topic of the cultivation of non-local wood species in the north-west German growth area .

After graduating, Friedrich worked at the Federal Research Institute for Forestry and Wood Management in Hamburg. From 1953 to 1958 he was given a teaching position in the Department of World Forestry at the University of Hamburg. This activity was supplemented in 1954 by a research semester at Oxford University . Friedrich participated in field studies and development projects of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) , where he was FAO head of mission and dean at the University of Liberia in Monrovia , West Africa, from 1959 to 1961 . Subsequently, between 1961 and 1966, Friedrich became involved as FAO section head in Rome for the establishment of agricultural research and teaching institutes in developing countries.

As UN Executive Secretary , he initiated and led the UN Industry Cooperation Program (ICP) in Rome, Geneva and New York from 1966 to 1979 to mobilize the private sector for sustainable, economically and socially sound development, a kind of quantum leap in the UN system of that time ( Public Private Partnership within the United Nations System, Now and then, Bertelsmann 2004). As a pioneer at the United Nations, he coined the term " joint ventures ", which is known worldwide today .

After active diplomatic service, Friedrich was invited in 1979 to be the founding chairman of the political forum of the German Foundation for International Development (DSE) in the Villa Borsig in Berlin. He was a talented mediator and moderator of large international conferences that have made development cooperation an important area of ​​German politics. Friedrich made a significant contribution to Germany's good reputation in developing countries and with international organizations. He motivated Germans to work in the UN system.

This was followed by consulting activities for the Commission of the European Union (EU) in the Caribbean Community ( CARICOM ) and in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) for intra- and interregional cooperation.

Friedrich is a member of the Presidium of the German Society for the United Nations ; in the Association of German Employees at International Organizations; in the German Society for Foreign Policy.

Awards

• Iron cross l. class
• Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany l. class
• In 2000 Friedrich was named one of the Outstanding People of the 20th Century by the British International Biographical Center .
• Five Hundred Leaders of Influence , Twentieth Century Achievement Award (Washington, DC)

Works (selection)

• Cultivation of non-native wood species in the north-west German growth area. Dissertation, Hamburg 1950.
• The afforestation results of the provincial forest management under Emeis in southern Schleswig, an example of successful wasteland forestation. Messages from the Institute for Spatial Research Bonn 12, Bad Godesberg 1951.
• Collaborator on soil culture, including the first map of forest distribution and forest formation classes in the world, Grosser Brockhaus 1955.
• Timber imports from West and Equatorial Africa, Bonn: Röhrscheid, 1958
• Repoit to the Government of Liberia on forest land use policy, and the College of Forestry in Liberia. Rome 1965. (with John H. Burgh).
• The North-South Dialogue at the beginning of the 1980s, Baden-Baden, 1982, Nomos, ISBN 3-7890-0774-9
• International Round Table Foreign Direct Investment and Development, Berlin, DSE Development Policy Forum, 1986
• Public Private Partnership within the United Nations System. Now and then. Bertelsmann. Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 978-3-7639-3177-4 . (with Valence E. Gale).
• "Manifesto" The Power of Partnership. UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, CSRwire 2016

literature

• Ekkehard Griep (Ed.): We are UNO. Germans at the United Nations. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2016. ISBN 978-3-451-31138-3 . P. 11–17 (special edition AG Friedrich)

Web links

• Literature by and about Alexander Gunther Friedrich in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DGVN website.