Walter von den Driesch

Walter L. von den Driesch (born January 11, 1955 in Aachen ) is a German diplomat who was ambassador to Benin from 2015 to 2017 .

Life

Born at the Marianneninstitut in Aachen , von den Driesch began studying geography , English and Romance languages at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen after graduating from high school in 1974 and completing military service in the Bundeswehr in 1976 , which he completed in 1983 with the state examination and an examination thesis on southern Tunisian oasis settlements.

In 1986 von den Driesch began the preparatory service for the higher foreign service (41st attaché course) and after completing this and practical training in the office of the President of the German Bundestag between 1988 and 1991, he was initially policy and protocol advisor at the embassy in Egypt and then from 1991 to 1994 consultant for the UN agencies in Rome (FAO, WFP, IFAD) as well as world food issues in the economic department of the Foreign Office in Bonn . From 1994 to 1997 he was permanent representative of the ambassador in Cameroon and during this time also acted as head of the department for economics, economic cooperation and development there and was temporarily business agent ad interim.

Thereupon von den Driesch acted as advisor for press and politics at the embassy in Romania between 1997 and 1999 , before he found another assignment at the Foreign Office in Berlin from 1999 to 2004 , initially as advisor for questions of the Baltic Sea Council and finally as deputy head of the department for foreign trade promotion. From 2004 to 2009 he was permanent representative of the Ambassador and Chargé d'affaires ad interim in Kenya as well as Deputy Permanent Representative to the Nairobi- based UN organizations United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Program for Human Settlements HABITAT . He was also a consultant for Somalia .

In 2009 von den Driesch became consul general in Lagos and held this post until 2013. He then worked between 2013 and 2015 as a political advisor in the Federal Ministry of Defense .

In July 2015, von den Driesch succeeded Hans Jörg Neumann , who in turn became Consul General in Los Angeles , Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Benin . He held this post until 2017 and was then replaced by Achim Tröster .

After working again as a political advisor in the Federal Ministry of Defense, von den Driesch was appointed ambassador special representative for the Sahel in September 2018.

Web links

• Curriculum vitae on the homepage of the embassy in Cotonou (access on December 5, 2015)