Berndt Robert Alexander Michael von Staden (24 June 1919 – 17 October 2014) was a German
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
who was the
West German Ambassador to the United States from 1973 until 1979.
Life
Von Staden grew up as a
Baltic German
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
in
Tallinn
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
. He studied law in Bonn and Hamburg. In 1951, he joined the Foreign Office.
He was head of the Consular Section of the West German Embassy in Brussels, from 1953 to 1955. In 1958, he was posted to the Commission of the
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
. In 1961, he married Wendelgard, Freiin von Neurath (born 1926). In 1963, he was Counsellor at the West German Embassy in Washington. Then he was Head of Political Department of the Foreign Office in Bonn.
In his memoir, he describes the beginning of the turn from confrontation to détente, which he observed as ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In the governments of
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
and
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming Cha ...
, he was the Head of Foreign Relations and Security in the Federal Chancellery in the shaping the policy of détente.
In 1970, he met with
Étienne Davignon
Étienne, Count Davignon (born 4 October 1932 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Belgian politician, businessman, and former vice-president of the European Commission.
Career
After receiving a Doctorate of Law from the Catholic University of Louvain, ...
.
Von Staden was given the 1979 Trainor Award.
Works
*''Zwischen Eiszeit und Tauwetter, Diplomatie in einer Epoche des Umbruchs''. Erinnerungen, wjs, Berlin 2005,
*''Erinnerungen aus der Vorzeit: Eine Jugend im Baltikum 1919–1939'', Siedler, Berlin 1999,
*''Ende und Anfang, Erinnerungen 1939–1963'', iPa, Vaihingen/Enz 2001,
References
External links
*
"Berndt von Staden", ''German wikipedia''
National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski meets with German Ambassador Berndt Von Staden
{{DEFAULTSORT:Staden, Berndt Von
1919 births
2014 deaths
Ambassadors of Germany to the United States
People from Rostock
Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg