Gerhard Conrad (agent)

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Gerhard Conrad (* 1954 ) is a German scholar of Islam and a former high-ranking employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). He became known as a mediator in hostage rescue negotiations in the Middle East. From 2016 to 2019 he was Director of the EU Intelligence Analysis Center (INTCEN) of the European External Action Service . He retired on November 1, 2019.

Life

Conrad has a doctorate in Islamic studies and learned Arabic as a student in Damascus . His doctoral thesis, submitted to the University of Bonn in 1987, deals with aspects of Islamic legal history in Syria . From 1998 to 2002 he headed the BND residency at the German Embassy in Damascus . He also worked for the BND in Beirut and Jerusalem . He was considered a leading expert on the Middle East region in the BND. According to a Spiegel article from April 2011, Conrad had the position of head of the planning team at the time. From 2016 until August 31, 2019, he coordinated as director of the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy imputed EU Intelligence Analysis Center (EU Intelligence and Situation Center) intelligence work of the European Union. In 2016, Conrad appeared at the Munich Security Conference together with intelligence officers James Clapper ( IC ), Robert Hannigan ( GCHQ ) and Rob Bertholee ( AIVD ) .

Acting as an intermediary in negotiations for the release of hostages

In 2001, Conrad was appointed to the BND negotiating team led by Max Rehm and gradually took over responsibility until Rehm's retirement in 2004, before he expanded and significantly shaped German negotiating activities in the Middle East in the years that followed. He was a key mediator in indirect talks between Israel and the Lebanese organization Hezbollah , which initially led to an exchange of prisoners between the two negotiating partners in January 2004 and again in July 2008 . As early as July 1996, with German help, an exchange of mortal remains from soldiers from both sides was achieved, although Conrad's involvement is unclear. In the summer of 2003 Israel exchanged the corpses of two Hezbollah fighters killed in southern Lebanon for information on the whereabouts of missing soldiers from the Israeli army at the mediation of a BND team led by the then coordinator of the Federal Intelligence Services in the Federal Chancellery , Ernst Uhrlau . In 2004, again with Uhrlaus participation, two Hezbollah leaders kidnapped by Israel, around 30 other Lebanese and other Arab and one German prisoners were released from Israeli custody, as were around 400 Palestinians who were deported to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In return, Hezbollah released the Israeli businessman and army reservist Elhanan Tannenbaum and handed over the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

In addition to acting as a mediator in negotiations for Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli press reports, Conrad was also responsible for negotiations for the liberation of several German citizens in the region: In October 2007, he achieved the rapid release of the German-Israeli dual citizen Daniel Sharon from Lebanese pretrial detention, which he obtained in August In 2008 three German mountain tourists who were detained in eastern Turkey by fighters from the Kurdish underground organization PKK returned home .

For the release of the fighter of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), Samir Kuntar , who had been convicted of two murders , and four other Hezbollah fighters, Hezbollah handed over the bodies of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev after mediation and under direct surveillance by Conrad . Conrad had officially mediated on behalf of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon since the beginning of 2007 ; his name had become public for the first time in the context of the negotiations through Israeli media reports that appeared a few months later. In a statement on the agreement, the Federal Chancellery described the prisoner exchange as a success for the federal government, the BND and the German mediator who was not named, but who has since been named as Gerhard Conrad in German press reports. The Chancellery report acknowledged Conrad's role in unusually detailed terms: the exchange required “18 months of an exhausting negotiation and travel marathon” , with 200 encounters on 100 trips covering around 700,000 flight kilometers. In a press release on the exchange, the Israeli government thanked Conrad by name for his commitment.

Conrad was also one of the central mediators in negotiations between the Palestinian organization Hamas and Israel, which led in October 2011 to an exchange of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit , who was kidnapped in 2006, for 1,027 Palestinians. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally asked Chancellor Angela Merkel in the summer of 2009 to have Conrad deployed again. In October 2009, Conrad brokered the release of twenty imprisoned Palestinian women in exchange for a recent video message from Schalit. Conrad presented a compromise formula to the Israeli government in December 2009, which was already very similar to the agreement that was ultimately implemented, but at that time the cabinet, with the decisive vote of Netanyahu, narrowly decided against the proposal. Conrad was finally rejected by Hamas in the spring of 2011 after already well-advanced talks as being too Israel-friendly, so that representatives of the Egyptian secret service took on the main role, but Conrad remained involved in an advisory capacity.

Private matters and awards

Conrad is married. His wife also works for the BND. The couple worked together at the German embassy in Damascus.

On July 29, 2008 Conrad received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his mediation work . After the successful conclusion of the talks on Shalit, Conrad was received personally by both the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres to thank him for his work. According to Peres, Conrad had "laid the foundation for the agreement".

In 2011, Conrad was awarded the Paul Ehrlich Gunther K. Schwerin Human Rights Prize in New York City by the American NGO Anti-Defamation League , which is dedicated to the international defense of Jews against discrimination and anti-Semitism .

Islamic studies publications

  • The Quḍāt Dimašq and the maḏhab al-Auzāʿī. Materials on Syrian legal history. Beirut texts and studies. Volume 46.Beirut / Stuttgart 1994 ISBN 3-515-05588-6
  • Abūʼl-Ḥusain al-Rāzī (-347/958) and his writings: Investigations into the early Damascus historiography Beirut / Stuttgart 1991 ISBN 978-3-515-05265-8
  • On the importance of the Tārīḫ madīnat Dimašq as a historical source in: XXIV. German Orientalist Day from September 26th to 30th, 1988 in Cologne. Texts and selected lectures , edited by Werner Diem and Abdoldjavad Falaturi , Stuttgart 1990 ISBN 3-515-05356-5
  • Combatants and prisoners of war in classical Islamic law: concepts formulated by Hanafi jurists of the 12th century in: Revue de Droit Pénal Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre, Vol. 20, Nos 3-4, Brussels 1981, pp. 269-307 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Markus Bickel: Prisoner Exchange. A German between the fronts . In: FAZ , October 12, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c The German James Bond: Retired Secret Bearer - The BND's top mediator is retiring. In: https://rp-online.de/ . Rheinische Post , August 30, 2019, accessed on September 2, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Matthias Gebauer: Top German spy coordinates EU secret services: Mr. Hezbollah on a new mission . In: Der Spiegel , December 11, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  4. ↑ Harry de Quetteville: Germany, Israel, hostages and Hezbollah in the World News Blog at The Telegraph on July 16, 2008, accessed on October 20, 2011 (English)
  5. ^ Gerhard Conrad: The quḍāt Dimašq and the maḏhab al-Auzā ʿ ī: Materials on Syrian legal history (=  Beirut texts and studies . Volume 46 ). Steiner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 978-3-515-05588-8 ( dnb.de [accessed April 13, 2020]).
  6. ^ John Burton: Review of The Quḍāt Dimašq and the Maḏhab al-Auzā'ī: Materials on Syrian Legal History . In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London . tape 60 , no. 1 , 1997, ISSN  0041-977X , p. 129-130 , JSTOR : 620781 .
  7. ↑ Justin Huggler (2015) Germany's 'Mr Hezbollah' to head up EU's joint intelligence operation in The Telegraph of December 11, 2015.
  8. ↑ a b Holger Stark: Secret Services: Pledge in War in: Der Spiegel from April 11, 2011, accessed on October 21, 2011
  9. ^ Daniel Brössler : When secret service bosses talk sensitively about data protection in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of February 12, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2016
  10. ↑ Guido Steinberg: From Ron Arad to Gilad Shalit: Germany's Role in the Middle Eastern Prisoner Exchanges, in: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, December 9, 2011, accessed October 10, 2014 (English)
  11. ↑ Germany's success as Mid-East broker in: BBC News from July 16, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  12. ↑ Bodies of Israeli MIAs are returned in Hezbollah deal in: Jewish Weekly of July 26, 1996, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  13. ↑ Mediator visits Tannenbaum in Hezbollah captivity in: Haaretz from August 26, 2003, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  14. ↑ Mohalhel Fakih: Prisoner swap on the horizon ( Memento of March 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) in: Al-Ahram Weekly of August 28, 2003, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  15. ↑ a b Prisoner Exchange: Honest Brokers Between Hezbollah and Israel in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 15, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011
  16. ↑ Israel, Hezbollah swap prisoners in: CNN January 29, 2004, accessed October 21, 2011.
  17. ↑ Ulrike Putz: Release from prison in Lebanon: German-Israeli Sharon is free again in: Der Spiegel from October 11, 2007, accessed on October 21, 2011
  18. ↑ In his own words: interviews with Daniel Sharon ( Memento from June 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the blog of the Israeli journalist Lisa Goldman from October 26, 2007, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  19. ^ Annette Ramelsberger: PKK kidnapping case: BND threaded the release of the hostages in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 22, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011
  20. ↑ Ronen Solomon: איש הצללים: פרופיל של המתווך הגרמני in: Ma'ariv, December 28, 2009, accessed October 21, 2011 (Hebrew)
  21. ^ Prisoner exchange: Identity of soldiers confirmed in: Focus from July 16, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011
  22. ↑ a b Gerhard Conrad - the 'fair' middleman overseeing the swap in: Haaretz from July 16, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  23. ^ Matthias Gebauer: BND help in the exchange of prisoners: The shuttle diplomacy of "Mr. Hezbollah" in: Der Spiegel from July 16, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011
  24. ↑ Middle East: Up to the border in: Der Tagesspiegel from July 16, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2011
  25. ↑ Nissan Ratzlav-Katz: Government Approves Hizbullah Ransom Agreement in: Arutz Sheva of 15 July 2008, accessed on 21 October 2011 (English)
  26. ↑ Dirk Banse and Uwe Müller: BND agent Conrad sees himself as a subcontractor of Egypt in: Die Welt from October 15, 2011, accessed on October 21, 2011
  27. ↑ Markus Bickel: BND mediator: No German “Mr. Hamas ” in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of October 18, 2011, accessed on October 20, 2011
  28. ↑ Avi Issacharoff: Shalit's captors: He wasn't tortured, he received medical care and watched TV in: Haaretz from October 20, 2011, accessed on October 24, 2011 (English)
  29. ^ Yossi Melman: Why did Netanyahu agree to a Shalit deal he had once opposed? in: Haaretz from October 13, 2011, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  30. ↑ German mediator in Egypt for Schalit deal talks ( Memento of October 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in: Jerusalem Post of October 3, 2011, accessed on October 21, 2011 (English)
  31. ↑ Andrea Nüsse: Prisoner Exchange. Germany's silent participation . In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 12, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  32. ↑ Frank Jansen : Gilat Schalit. Hope in secret . In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 23, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  33. ↑ Information from the Federal President's Office
  34. ↑ The man behind Shalit's liberation in Basler Zeitung of 19 June 2011, accessed 20 October 2011
  35. ↑ Tommy Mueller: President thanks German negotiator in: Israel today, October 19, 2011, accessed on October 24, 2011
  36. ↑ ADL Honors German Negotiator With Human Rights Award For Successfully Coordinating Israeli Soldier Gilad Shalit's Release, notification from ADL dated November 18, 2011, accessed on October 10, 2014 (English)
predecessor Office successor
Ilkka Salmi Director of INTCEN
2016-2019 		José Casimiro Morgado
personal data
SURNAME Conrad, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scholar of Islam and BND staff
DATE OF BIRTH 1954