David Gill (diplomat)

Gill during the 53rd MSC 2017

David Gill (born March 2, 1966 in Schönebeck ) is a German administrative lawyer and diplomat. Gill has been Consul General at the German Consulate General in New York since October 2017. Before that, he was head of the Office of the Federal President under Federal President Joachim Gauck from 2012 to 2017 .

Live and act

David Gill grew up in Herrnhut . He is the second youngest of seven children of Theodor Gill, Bishop of the Moravian Brethren . After attending the polytechnic high school and an apprenticeship as a plumber , he did his Abitur at the church college in Potsdam-Hermannswerder , which was only recognized by the GDR government for studying theology at church universities . He began to study theology at the Language Convict of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg in East Berlin . In the course of the Peaceful Revolution , he became chairman of the citizens' committee for the dissolution of the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security in Berlin in early 1990 . When establishing the authority of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi files , he became a close associate of Joachim Gauck and, among other things, her first press spokesman. In 1991, together with Christian Führer , Joachim Gauck, Anetta Kahane , Ulrike Poppe and Jens Reich, on behalf of “The peaceful demonstrators of autumn 1989 in the former GDR”, he was awarded the “ Theodor Heuss Medal ” of the Theodor Heuss Foundation .

David Gill, 2010

In 1992 he left the authority and began studying law. During a year abroad at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1998, he earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree . Back in Germany, he passed the second state examination in law in 2000. He then worked as a consultant at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and as a consultant to the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Hansjürgen Garstka .

At the beginning of 2004 he was appointed by the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) to the senior church council and deputy of the representative of the council of the EKD for the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union. The authorized representative was Stephan Reimers until 2008 .

After Joachim Gauck was nominated as a candidate for the office of Federal President, David Gill took over the management of his temporary office. On March 19, 2012 he was appointed State Secretary by Joachim Gauck and was thus Head of the Office of the Federal President. After Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected Federal President in February 2017, David Gill was retired. Stephan Steinlein was his successor .

Gill's wife, Sheila, is American. The couple have two daughters. He is a member of the SPD . Gill has been Consul General of the German Consulate General in New York since October 2017.

Works

• (with Ulrich Schröter and others): The Ministry for State Security: Anatomy of the Mielke empire. Rowohlt, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-87134-017-0 ; Paperback ( rororo 9369) 1993 ISBN 3-499-19369-8
• Best Practice - Report from the practice of an information officer. In: Bettina Sokol (Ed.): Summer Symposium Freedom of Information Düsseldorf 2004, pp. 51–69 full text (PDF; 470 kB)

Web links

• Literature by and about David Gill in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography on EKD.de (until 2004)
• Resume. (PDF) In: Website of the German representations in the USA. Retrieved November 21, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Gill in the Munzinger archive , accessed on August 24, 2012 ( beginning of article freely accessible)
2. ↑ Let's do it! . In: Der Tagesspiegel , February 27, 2012
3. ↑ For the background see Hedwig Richter : Pietismus im Sozialismus. The Moravian Brethren in the GDR (= critical studies on historical science . Volume 186). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, pp. 325–326; 333.
4. ^ Joachim Gauck: Winter in Summer - Spring in Autumn. Memories . Siedler Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-88680-935-6 , p. 238.
5. ↑ New representative of the representative of the EKD Council, EKD press release of January 14, 2004, accessed on February 25, 2012
6. ↑ David Gill - Gauck's confidante for Bellevue Palace . In: Die Welt , February 25, 2012
7. ↑ David Gill is Gauck's most important collaborator . In: Bild Online , March 19, 2012
8. ^ Südwest Presse Online-Dienst GmbH: About the person: Stephan Steinlein, the right hand of the president . In: swp.de . March 17, 2017 ( swp.de [accessed March 27, 2017]).
9. ↑ Die Herrnhuter Sterne  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ). Broadcast of the RBB on December 3, 2011, accessed on February 25, 2012
10. ↑ Gauck's flat shares Bellevue . In: sueddeutsche.de , March 19, 2012