Geert-Hinrich Ahrens

Geert-Hinrich Ahrens 2015

Geert-Hinrich Ahrens (born July 29, 1934 in Berlin ) is a former German lawyer and diplomat who was ambassador to Vietnam from 1984 to 1986 and to Colombia between 1996 and 1999 .

Life

Ahrens, son of a geologist , began after his Abitur in 1954 in Dusseldorf studying law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn and put 1958 the first and after the clerkship 1963 Second State Exam from. In 1964 there his doctorate Dr. jur. with a dissertation on the subject of the requirements of marital descent. A comparative legal study of German, Swiss, Yugoslav, French, Italian and Spanish law , before he was subsequently a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University for some time .

After a year as a lawyer in Düsseldorf, he joined the Foreign Service in 1965 and was initially employed as an attaché at the Consulate General in São Paulo from 1965 to 1966 . After working at the headquarters of the Foreign Office in Bonn , he was consul in Hong Kong between 1968 and 1972 and then first secretary at the embassy in Yugoslavia . After serving as counselor at the embassy in the People's Republic of China from 1975 to 1979 , he returned to the headquarters of the Foreign Office in Bonn.

In 1984 he was appointed ambassador to Vietnam as the successor to Claus Vollers and held this office until he was replaced by Joachim Broudré-Gröger in 1986. Subsequently, he was employed as a lecturer in the first class of the Foreign Office and then from 1992 to 1996 as chairman of a Working group at the conference on the former Yugoslavia in Geneva .

After a brief post as a representative for Asian policy in the Foreign Office, he succeeded Franz von Mentzingen's ambassador to Colombia in 1996 and held this office until he retired and was replaced by Peter von Jagow in 1999. At times, Ahrens was also head of the Representation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Albania .

In 2005 he was an observer for the presidential elections in Ukraine on behalf of the OSCE and the Center for European Integration Research at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , and wrote a report on it.

Publications

• The requirements of marital parentage. A comparative study of German, Swiss, Yugoslav, French, Italian and Spanish law. Bonn 1964
• The presidential elections in Ukraine. The Difficult Mission of the OSCE ODIHR Election Observers (August 2004 to January 2005). Bonn 2005

Web links

• Literature by and about Geert-Hinrich Ahrens in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography. In: Gerhard Köbler : Who is who in German law (online version)