Manfred Schmidt (diplomat)

Manfred Schmidt (born December 8, 1930 in Erfurt ) is a former German diplomat . He was the GDR's ambassador to Bulgaria , Sweden and Japan .

Life

Schmidt was born the son of an employee. After graduating from high school , he attended a technical college for economics and administration and was a business economist.

In 1950 he joined the diplomatic service of the GDR. He was an employee of the Poland section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR (MfAA). From 1954 to 1958 he worked as a culture and press attaché at the embassy of the GDR in Warsaw . From 1958 to 1964 he was sector manager in the protocol department of the MfAA. He completed a distance learning course at the German Academy for Political Science and Law , which he graduated in 1958 with a degree in political science . From 1964 to 1969 he was chief of protocol at the MfAA (successor to Klaus Willerding ). From 1970 to 1975 he was counselor in Warsaw. From September 1975 to May 1981 he worked as the GDR's ambassador in Sofia , from September 1982 to 1988 as ambassador to Stockholm and finally from September 1988 to September 1990 as ambassador to Tokyo .

Schmidt was a member of the SED . After the fall of the Wall, he worked from 1991 to 1995 as sales manager at the Gesellschaft für Industrieforschung mbH Aachen .

Works

• (together with Peter Schubert ): Relations between the GDR and Bulgaria and Albania . In: Siegfried Bock, Ingrid Muth, Hermann Schwiesau (Eds.): Alternative German Foreign Policy? GDR foreign policy in the rearview mirror (II) . LIT Verlag, Berlin 2006, pp. 77-97.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze (1965) and in silver (1985)
• Order " Banner of Labor " (1981)

literature

• Gabriele Baumgartner: Schmidt, Manfred . In: dies., Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla . KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 789.
• Siegfried Bock , Ingrid Muth , Hermann Schwiesau: The GDR foreign policy, an overview. Data, facts, people (III) . LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10559-2 , p. 348.