Herbert Fischer (diplomat)

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Herbert Fischer (born April 10, 1914 in Herrnhut ; † February 3, 2006 in Berlin ) was a German diplomat . From 1972 to 1976 he was the GDR's ambassador to India .

Life

Herbert Fischer comes from a strictly religious family of craftsmen as the youngest of five children. His father, whose convictions he later did not share, was head of the Herrnhut district. As a schoolboy he came into contact with life reformers, free settlers, vegetarians, pacifists and socialists. In rebellion against his parents' house, he left high school shortly before graduating from high school in 1932.

In 1933 he fled Germany, first to France and later to Spain . When the civil war began to emerge there, he finally arrived in 1936 in an adventurous way with a given bicycle and at times also traveling by bus and boat to the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in Wardha . He took part in the Indian independence movement there for over a decade.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Fischer and his family were interned by the British colonial power and deported to Germany in 1946. In 1947 he returned to his homeland - Upper Lusatia . He studied and first became a new teacher, then director of the “Geschwister-Scholl-Oberschule” Löbau and later director of the institute for teacher training “Edwin Hoernle” in Radebeul . In 1956 he began working in the GDR Foreign Ministry. For almost a decade and a half he was the representative of the GDR in India, first as deputy head and later as head of a commercial agency, then as consul general and since 1972 - after the GDR was recognized by India - as ambassador . In 1976 he left the diplomatic service and joined the SED party apparatus as a scientist.

In 1971 he was awarded the Silver Patriotic Order of Merit and in 1974 the Order of Labor Banner .

He is the author of several books, including one on Mahatma Gandhi (1981). Another book reports on his work as a diplomat in India (1984), and his last work (2002) "On the way to Gandhi" deals with his personal experiences with Gandhi.

In May 2003 he received the Padma Bhushan , a high Indian medal, from the Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee on his state visit to Germany .

His wife (daughter of a Bengali and an Englishman) comes from Jamaica. With her he has three sons, one of whom later also in the diplomatic service in India, a daughter and an adopted daughter.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 6, 1971, p. 8
  2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung, June 25, 1974, p. 4

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat, ambassador of the GDR in India
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Herrnhut
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 2006
Place of death Berlin