Otto Pfeiffer (diplomat)

Otto Pfeiffer (born May 2, 1937 in Niederwünsch ) is a former German diplomat . He was the ambassador of the German Democratic Republic in Venezuela and Guyana .

Life

Pfeiffer was born into a small farmer family. He attended elementary school in his place of birth and from 1949 to 1955 the old-language branch of the Landesheim-Oberschule Pforte , where he also passed the Abitur. In 1955 he began studying foreign policy at the German Academy for Political Science and Law , which he graduated in 1959 with a degree in political science .

In 1959 he became an employee at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the GDR (MfAA) and was active in the diplomatic service of the GDR until 1990. From 1961 to 1962 he worked as an attaché at the embassy in Prague , from 1962 to 1967 as an advisor in the press department of the MfAA. From 1967 to 1971 he was second secretary (press attaché) at the embassy in Havana . In 1971 he became the Spanish editor of the foreign affairs correspondence and from 1972 to 1973 sector head in the press department of the MfAA. From May 1973 to 1975 he was first secretary and temporarily chargé d'affaires in Madrid . In 1975 he became sector manager for policy issues in the Foreign Information Department at the MfAA. From December 1977 to November 1981 he served as ambassador to Caracas and from February 1980 to October 1981 he was second-accredited in Georgetown (Guyana) . From 1981 he was deputy head and from 1983 to 1990 head of the foreign information department in the main press department of the MfAA. As such, in 1987 he was awarded the " Labor Banner " Level III order.

Pfeiffer had been a member of the SED since 1966 , later the PDS and is a member of the DIE LINKE party . In 1982/83 he completed a one-year course at the party college of the SED .

From 1990 until his retirement in 1997 he was involved in various educational and research projects relating to the history of Berlin at the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein and the Kulturrings Berlin e. V. active. Pfeiffer was Vice-President from 1995 and President of the Association for International Politics and International Law from 2005 until its dissolution at the end of 2018 .

Pfeiffer is widowed and has two children. Today he lives in Berlin as a pensioner.

literature

• Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR. 4th, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0121-X , p. 242.
• Gabriele Baumgartner: Pfeiffer, Otto . 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. 643.
• Erhard Crome (Hrsg.): The Babelsberger Diplomatenschule. The Institute for International Relations of the GDR . WeltTrends, Potsdam 2009, ISBN 978-3-941880-01-6 .
• Siegfried Bock , Ingrid Muth , Hermann Schwiesau (eds.): The GDR foreign policy, an overview. Data, facts, people (III) . LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10559-2 , p. 341.

Web links

• Memories from Otto Pfeiffer at www.vip-ev.de (accessed December 28, 2017).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ High awards given . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 2, 1987, p. 11.
2. ↑ horizont introduces - Otto Pfeiffer . In: Horizont , No. 6 - February 1978.