Jürgen Chrobog is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 jurist

Jurist

A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

, diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, and German Ambassador to the United States

German Ambassador to the United States

The United States has had diplomatic relations with the nation of Germany and its predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Prussia, since 1835. These relations were broken twice while Germany and the United States were at war....

 from 1995 to 2001.

Life

Chrobog studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 in the 1960s in Freiburg im Breisgau, Göttingen

Göttingen

Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

 and Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

 before going on to work as an attorney in Hannover. In 1972, he joined the diplomatic service of the Federal Republic of Germany, which he served in United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.
Chrobog, a member of the Freie Demokratische Partei, was a colleague of the former German foreign minister Walter Scheel

Walter Scheel

Walter Scheel is a German politician . He served as Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development from 1961 to 1966, Foreign Minister of Germany and Vice Chancellor from 1969 to 1974, acting Chancellor of Germany from 7 May to 16 May 1974 , and finally as President of the Federal...

 and Hans-Dietrich Genscher

Hans-Dietrich Genscher

Hans-Dietrich Genscher is a German politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party . He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1982 and, after a two-week pause, from 1982 to 1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor...

 from 1973 until 1977, in the Foreign Office

Foreign Office (Germany)

The Foreign Office is the foreign ministry of Germany, a federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign politics and its relationship with the European Union. From 1871 to 1919, it was led by a Foreign Secretary, and since 1919, it has been led by the Foreign Minister of Germany...

, responsible for European issues as well as the Third World

Third World

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

. In 1977, he was dispatched to Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, and in 1980, to Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

.

From 1984 until 1991, Jürgen Chrobog was the head of the press division as well as the spokesperson for the Foreign office, and beginning in 1988, directed Hans-Dietrich Genscher's ministerial office.
From 1995 until 2001, Chrobog was the German ambassador to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.
After carrying out this function, he returned to Berlin as State Secretary of the German Federal Foreign Office, with foreign minister, Joschka Fischer

Joschka Fischer

Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens. He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005...

.
Additionally, before his retirement in 2005, Chrobog—then an undersecretary of state—was responsible for dealing with the crisis provoked by the kidnapping of German tourists in Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

.

He is chairman of the board of the BMW foundation and a member of Atlantic Community

Atlantic Community

The Atlantic Community is a German-American project to apply Web 2.0 ideas to transatlantic foreign policy strategy. Launched in April 2007 as an undertaking of the Atlantic Initiative, the Atlantic Community aims at facilitating discussion between young thinkers and established members of the...

 Advisory Board.

Abduction

On December 28, 2005, it was announced that Jürgen Chrobog had been abducted in eastern Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

 during a cross-country vacation, along with his wife, three grown sons (one of whom, Felix Chrobog, is a successful long distance runner in Washington DC). The family was in Yemen on invitation from the Yemeni vice foreign-minister.

According to the German Foreign Office, the kidnapped family had traveled to Yemen on Christmas Eve with a travel group traveling in an auto convoy. The family's car had, according to the foreign office, initially lagged behind the Convoy before finally getting lost. Chrobog, along with his family, was released on December 31, 2005.

External links

• Porträt der Zeitung Die Welt aus dem Jahr 2003
• This article was translated from an article of the same name in the German Wikipedia)
• bbc
• Hertie School of Governance
  Hertie School of Governance
  The Hertie School of Governance is a private university in Berlin, in the historic Quartier 110 of Friedrichstraße. The school is regarded as one of the leading policy institutes in Europe...