Harald Gehrig

Harald Gehrig (born March 3, 1954 in Tauberbischofsheim ) is a retired German diplomat . He was last ambassador to Madagascar from 2014 to 2019 .

Life

After graduating from high school, Gehrig studied law between 1974 and 1981 , which he passed in 1981 with the first state examination in law. After the legal traineeship that followed, he passed his second state examination in 1984 and then worked for the DAAD between 1984 and 1986 and worked on its first student exchange and language program in Tokyo .

In 1986 he began the preparatory service for the higher foreign service and, after graduating in 1987, joined the Foreign Office . After a position in the personnel department at the headquarters of the Foreign Office in Bonn , he worked for the first time at the embassy in Japan from 1988 to 1991 and then from 1991 to 1995 in the cultural department of the Foreign Office.

After serving as permanent representative of the ambassador to Yemen between 1995 and 1997 , Gehrig succeeded Ralf Andreas Breth in 1997 as head of the consulate general in Sibiu . He held this office until his replacement by Peter Adamek in July 2001. The city council of Sibiu granted him honorary citizenship for his services to German-Romanian relations .

After his return to Germany, he acted as Deputy Head of Protocols at the Foreign Office between 2001 and 2006, before moving to the embassy in Japan again in July 2006, where he was head of the cultural department until 2011. He was then from 2011 to July 2014 lecturer first class and head of a section in the legal department of the Foreign Office.

In August 2014 Gehrig became ambassador to Madagascar and thus successor to Ulrich Hochschild , who retired in June 2014 . On August 13, 2014, he presented his credentials to the President of Madagascar , Hery Rajaonarimampianina . Its accreditation also includes diplomatic responsibility for the Comoros and Mauritius .

On December 4, 2014 he welcomed the frigate Lübeck (F 214) under the commandant, frigate captain Peter Christian Semrau, together with the commander of the Malagasy armed forces and the commander of the Madagascar navy in the port of Antsiranana . The Lübeck participated in the autumn 2014 Operation Atalanta at the Horn of Africa in part.

In mid-2019 he handed over the official business to his successor Michael Gerus and retired. After leaving the Foreign Office, he applied for the office of mayor of his hometown Tauberbischofsheim , but was unsuccessful.