Günther Baechler

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Günther Baechler

Günther Baechler (born July 15, 1953 in Basel ) is a Swiss diplomat , political scientist and painter .

Life

After graduating from high school, Günther Baechler studied art and art history from 1975 to 1979 at the Kunsthochschule Basel, graduating as a teacher of fine arts. His teachers were u. a. Lenz Klotz , Hans Hartmann and Paolo Pola, who were influenced by the so-called Bündner Schule and thus strongly by Alberto Giacometti . From 1980 to 1986 he studied history and political science at the Free University of Berlin with a focus on international relations, conflict research, security policy , arms control and the East-West conflict. He completed these studies in 1986 with his diploma thesis on the conventionalization of the NATO strategy in Europe . For the next two years he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg .

In 1988 he was appointed director of the newly established Swiss Peace Foundation in Bern . Under his leadership, which he held until the end of 2000, the Peace Foundation became a publicly supported institution for academic research, mediation and foreign policy advice. At the same time, he was research assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich from 1989 to 1993, together with Kurt Spillmann . In 1993/1994 he worked on behalf of the Swiss Foreign Ministry to monitor the referendum in Eritrea and as an election observer for the first free elections in South Africa . In 1996 he was enrolled on a sabbatical as a fellow at the JF Kennedy Institute at Harvard University in Cambridge MA. During this time he trained as a mediator. In 1997 he received his doctorate at the University of Bremen in Dieter Senghaas to Dr. rer. pole. with summa cum laude . For the next six years he taught peace and conflict research at the University of Bern .

In January 2001, he became head of the Conflict Prevention and Transformation section in the Department for Development and Cooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) . The issue of conflict management and fragile statehood was introduced in all country programs for development cooperation, humanitarian aid and cooperation with Eastern Europe. From April 2004 he was sent to numerous conflict regions by the Human Security Department of the FDFA as a peace broker; u. a. to Nepal and Sudan (Darfur).

In August 2010, Baechler was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary of Switzerland for Georgia with a side accreditation in Armenia . At the same time he was responsible for Switzerland's protective power mandate for the Russian Federation in Georgia. In 2016 he worked for the German chairman of the OSCE , Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier , as a special envoy for the South Caucasus . In 2017 and 2018 he held the same function for the OSCE Chairs of Austria and Italy .

In August 2018 he resigned from active diplomatic service. He continues to advise the FDFA and the OSCE in individual conflict regions.

In September 2018 he opened the Kunsthof Holm as an art gallery with his wife Marenhai Baechler . June 2019 he exhibited in Holm for the first time some of his expenses since 2018 large-format photos in the exhibition "wave crests as hard as rock" from.

In July 2019 he was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Berghof Foundation Berlin.

Publications (selection)

  • with Silvia Buol, Verena Wyler: School and Museum. In the Bündner Kunstmuseum. Introduction to Abstract Expressionism. In: Bündner Schulblatt = Bollettino scolastico grigione = Fegl scolastic grischun. Volume 37 (1977-1988). Issue 4. Digitized
  • The political debate in the Federal Republic about a conventionalization of the NATO posture. Berlin project network of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Research, Berlin (West) 1985. Digitized
  • Gerd Michelsen (ed.): The future of the Federal Republic. Scenarios and forecasts. A publication by the Öko-Institut Freiburg / Breisgau. With scenarios by Günther Baechler. Rasch and Röhrig, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-89136-175-0 .
  • Peaceability of democracies, democratization of security policy and structural inability to attack. A contribution to the problem of democracy in security policy. Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy of the University of Hamburg, Hamburg 1988. (= Hamburg contributions to peace research and security policy. )
  • (Ed.): Peace and conflict research in times of upheaval. Peace and Conflict Research in Times of Radical Change. Rüegger, Zurich 1992.
  • (Ed.): Peace and Freedom. Switzerland in Europe . Rüegger, Zurich 1992.
  • with Maren haarje: Limits of the international peace efforts around Yogoslavia. In: New ways. Zurich 1992, pp. 182-186. Digitized
  • Conflict and cooperation in the ight of global human-ecological transformation. Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research, Zurich 1993.
  • Why Swiss blue helmets? Basic paper and results of an opinion poll on the occasion of the media conference of the Swiss Peace Foundation in Bern, on February 17, 1994, Hotel Bern. Swiss Peace Foundation, Bern 1994.
  • (Ed.): To join or free-ride? The future of neutrality in Europe. Rüegger, Chur 1994.
  • Coherence et cohésion dans la coopération au développement. In: L'Annuaire suisse de politique de développement. 1995, pp. 174-176.
  • with Kurt R. Spillmann : War cause environmental destruction. Final report of the Environment and Conflict Project ENCOP. 3 volumes. Rüegger, Zurich 1996.
  • Civil conflict management in Africa. Basic elements for Switzerland's peacebuilding policy. SFS, Bern 1998. ISBN 978-3-908230-32-8 .
  • Aide humanitaire, politique de sécurité et prévention des conflits. In: L'Annuaire suisse de politique de développement. 1999, pp. 39-49.
  • Be neutral between the criminal and the police? Reconsiderations on NATO intervention and the withering away of neutrality. In: Jürg Martin Gabriel (Ed.): Swiss Foreign Policy in the Kosovo War . Orell Füssli, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-280-02814-0 . Pp. 41-62.
  • The environment. Conflict management and cooperation. Agenda-Verlag, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-89688-110-8 . (= Studies for European peace policy )
  • Promoting peace. The role of civilian conflict resolution. Staempfli, Bern 2002, ISBN 3-72729033-1 .
  • Nepal building new roads to peace. Jagadamba Press, Lalitpur 2008.
  • with Guy Jost: Building Democracy. Essays and Images from Georgia. Cézannes Publishing House, Tbilisi 2015, ISBN 978-9941-0-7869-9 .
  • Countering the threat of war in Europe with cooperative security . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 17, 2020. Digitized version accessed on August 10, 2020

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Violence through Environmental Discrimination. Causes, Rwanda arena, and conflict model. Kluwer Academic Publisher, Boston / London 1999.
  2. ↑ Switzerland in Nepal's constitutional process. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of July 6, 2007.
  3. ↑ Schweizer becomes OSCE Special Representative for the South Caucasus. (Bern, January 14, 2016)
personal data
SURNAME Baechler, Günther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bächler, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss diplomat, political scientist, painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel