Birgitt Ory (born 1964) is a German diplomat. From 2019 till 2022 she has served as the German Ambassador to Nigeria. Ory was the first woman to serve as Director General of the

German Institute Taipei The German Institute Taipei (German: Deutsches Institut Taipei); () is the overseas representative office of Germany in Taiwan, which promotes the non-diplomatic German-Taiwanese relations and looks after German interests there. Tasks of the inst ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, a post she held from 2008 to 2011.

Early life and education

Ory was born in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

in 1964. She graduated from high school in

Neustadt in Holstein Neustadt in Holstein (; Holsatian: ''Niestadt in Holsteen'') is a town in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on the Bay of Lübeck 30 km northeast of Lübeck, and 50 km southeast of Kiel. History In World War I ...

in 1983 and went on to study political science, communications, and German literature at

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, where she graduated

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

Career

Ory was assigned her first diplomatic post by the

Federal Foreign Office , logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg , logo_width = 260 px , image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg , picture_width = 300px , image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building , headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...

in 1990 as an attachée at the Diplomatic Academy in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, also working at the

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President of France, President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the Constitu ...

and the

French Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs () is the ministry of the Government of France that handles France's foreign relations. Since 1855, its headquarters have been located at 37 Quai d'Orsay, close to the National Assembly. The term Quai ...

. The following year she was assigned a job in the German Foreign Office's Department of Economics and Humanitarian Aid. In 1993 Ory was appointed as the Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, serving there for two years. From 1998 to 2001 she was part of the Permanent Mission of Germany to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as part of the African Security Council. The next three years she worked in the Office of the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

's Foreign Policy Department. From 2004 to 2008 Ory was the Head of the Multilateral Cooperation Asia Division. From 2016 to 2018 she served as the Director of International Economic Affairs. Ory was the Chief of Staff for the Minister of State Affairs, Michelle Müntefering, from 2018 to 2019.

Director-General of the German Institute Taipei

In 2008 Ory was appointed as the Director-General of the

, and was the first woman to hold this position. She was succeeded by

Michael Zickerick Michael Zickerick (born 21 November 1948) is a German diplomat. He served as the German Ambassador to Moldova from 2000 to 2004 and as the Director General of the German Institute Taipei in Taiwan from 2011 to 2014. Zickerick is a recipient of the ...

as Director-General in 2011, and became the Director of the German Foreign Office's Southeast Asia and Pacific Department. In June 2009 Ory unveiled the

Buddy Bear ''Buddy Bears'' are painted, life-size fiberglass bear sculptures developed by German businesspeople Klaus and Eva Herlitz, in cooperation with sculptor Roman Strobl. They have become a landmark of Berlin and are considered unofficial ambassado ...

for Taiwan at German Night in Taipei. The Buddy Bear, a 2-meter-high sculpture first created in Berlin in 2001, serves as the symbol of Germany's friendship, travelling internationally to promote peace and international understanding. In February 2010 Ory helped unveil a memorial at

228 Peace Memorial Park 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

honoring victims of the February 28 incident.

Ambassador to Nigeria

In September 2019 Ory was appointed as the Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria. She was received by President

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...

of Nigeria on September 19, 2019 to present her credentials. She was succeeded in 2022 by Annett Günther and went back to Berlin to take up a role in the German Foreign Office. On 2 May 2020 Ory met with members of the

Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political union, political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an ...

to discuss security measures. Later that month she congratulated Nigeria for holding two major offices in the United Nations, Deputy Secretary General and President of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

. In August 2020 she called for a stronger partnership between the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

and African nations, particularly Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States. Ory stated that especially since the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

had shifted political priorities around the world, economic recovery is crucial. She disclosed that the Embassy of Germany, Abuja was working closely with Nigerian government agencies and local communities to help prevent the spread of the

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

, including starting an initiative to provide free face masks and hand washing stations throughout the country. The initiative was officially launched on 3 August 2020 in the Federal Capital Territory. The resources provided were produced by women tailors from disadvantaged communities to help improve income opportunities as well as communal health. On 12 August 2020 Ory voiced support for the Nigerian government's fight against trafficking illicit wildlife products. In September 2020 she helped plead on the behalf of the European Union for Nigeria to lift airspace restrictions against

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

, and

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

. Also that month, she spoke at the opening of a rehabilitation center in

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the ...

built by the German Technical Advisory Group as part of Germany's Equipment Aid Programme initiative. She spoke about the bilateral economic opportunities available to Germany and Nigeria at the 8th edition of the German-Nigerian Business Forum on 9 November 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ory, Birgitt Living people 1964 births 20th-century German diplomats 21st-century German diplomats Ambassadors of Germany to Nigeria Director Generals of the German Institute Taipei German women ambassadors Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Politicians from Lübeck 20th-century German women 21st-century German women