Günter Blum (diplomat)

Günter Blum (born March 30, 1922 in Berlin ; † February 5, 1990 ) was a German politician ( SED ) and diplomat . He was the GDR's ambassador to Argentina and Colombia .

Life

Blum came from a working class family in Berlin. After attending primary school, he learned the trade of toolmaker from 1936 to 1941. He then did military service from 1941 to 1945 as a soldier in the Navy during World War II . In May 1945 he was taken as a non-commissioned officer in Schleswig-Holstein in British captivity, from which he was released in August 1945.

He then worked as a farm laborer near Hamburg and returned to his hometown Berlin in November 1945, where he initially worked as a worker in the Soviet Army. He then worked as a toolmaker. In January 1946 he became a member of the KPD and in April 1946 after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD a member of the SED . In 1946 he went into agriculture and completed an agricultural apprenticeship on the Pretschen estate by 1948, graduating as an agricultural assistant. From 1950 to 1952 he studied at the German Academy for Political Science and Law and graduated with a degree in economics. From 1952 to 1963, Blum was secretary for agriculture in the SED district leadership in Cottbus . In 1956 he attended the special school of the SED Central Committee in Schwerin . From 1963 he was deputy director of the Institute for Agriculture in Vetschau (Spreewald) . Between 1964 and 1972 he was the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Cottbus-Land . In December 1967 he received his doctorate in agricultural sciences from the University of Agriculture and Food Management in Bernburg (Saale) .

In 1972, Blum joined the diplomatic service of the GDR. From 1973 to September 1979 he was GDR ambassador to Argentina , from February 1980 to 1982 ambassador to Colombia . Blum then retired.

From April 1986 Blum was president of the GDR-Colombia friendship society.

Awards

Blum received the GDR Medal of Merit and in 1967 the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze.

literature

• Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR. 4th, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0121-X , p. 25.
• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , p. 66.
• Siegfried Bock, Ingrid Muth, Hermann Schwiesau: The GDR foreign policy, an overview. Data, facts, people (III) . LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2010, p. 293.
• Mario Niemann , Andreas Herbst (Ed.): SED-Kader The middle level. Biographical Lexicon 1946 to 1989 . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76977-0 , pp. 117f.