Thomas Schäfer (diplomat)

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Thomas Schäfer (born December 1, 1952 in Oldenburg ) is a retired German diplomat . From 2007 to 2010 and from 2013 to 2018 he was the German ambassador to North Korea and from 2010 to 2013 in Guatemala .

Life

After attending school in Kansas City , Missouri (graduation in 1971) and in Kiel ( high school graduation in 1972), Schäfer studied history and Romance studies at the University of Kiel until 1980 . During this time he worked as a language assistant in Lyon from 1977 to 1978 . In 1985 he received his doctorate in history in Kiel.

From 1981 to 1983 he completed his training at the Foreign Office and then worked at the German embassy in Beijing until 1987 . After an assignment abroad as a permanent representative at the embassy in San Salvador (1987–1989), he worked from 1989 to 1992 as a consultant in the Latin America department at the Foreign Office in Bonn . From 1992 to 1994 he was at the Consulate General in Hong Kong . In 1994 Schäfer was appointed deputy head of the disarmament department. From 1997 Schäfer worked at the embassy in Guatemala and from 2000 at the embassy in Caracas ( Venezuela ). In 2003 he took over the management of the Disarmament Department in Berlin, which he held until 2006. From 2006 to 2007 he was posted to the German embassy in Seoul and in 2007 was appointed ambassador to Pyongyang . Schäfer was Ambassador to Guatemala from August 2010 to July 2013 and again Ambassador to North Korea from 2013 until his retirement in 2018 .

Schäfer is married to a Guatemalan and has two children.

Initiative in North Korea

Due to Schäfer's initiative - and one and a half years of negotiations with the North Korean Foreign Ministry - it became possible that an extraordinary historical exhibition of the United Buddy Bears in Pyongyang took place in autumn 2008 . It was the first art exhibition that came from abroad, and at the same time the first that was freely accessible to everyone in North Korea.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Germany's role in Korea: “North Korea should be diplomatically starved” (paragraph 4) . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 24, 2020]).
  2. ^ Thomas Schäfer: The Schleswig-Holstein Community 1950 - 1958: with a contribution to the emergence of the "bloc of expellees and disenfranchised" . In: Sources and research on the history of Schleswig-Holstein. - Münster: Aschendorff, 1914- . tape 92 . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1987, p. 207 .
  3. ^ "Our man in Pyongyang" , www.sueddeutsche.de, November 30, 2017
  4. ↑ United Buddy Bears in Pyongyang 2008
  5. ^ Institute for Foreign Relations, October 20, 2008 ifa cultural exchange
  6. ↑ International understanding: There the selected bear steppt , FAZ from October 25, 2008 ( FAZ from October 25, 2008, p. 7 )
personal data
SURNAME Shepherd, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldenburg