David Gill (born 1966) is a German civil servant and politician, since October 2017 serving as German Consul General in New York. Previously, he had been Secretary of State and head of the

Bundespräsidialamt The Bundespräsidialamt (Office of the Federal President) is a federal agency (German: "oberste Bundesbehörde") of the Government of Germany assisting the President of Germany. The office building is situated beneath Bellevue Palace in Tierga ...

, the administration 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 ...

. He was appointed on 19 March 2012 by President

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...

and stayed in office until February 2017. He is a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

. He grew up in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, where he initially studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, the only subject he was allowed to study. After the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, he worked for the

Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records , commonly known as the ) , dissolved = June 17, 2021 , superseding1 = , agency_type = Former Secret Police Archive , jurisdiction = , status = Dissolved, now part of the German Federal Archives ...

and became a close aide of

, serving as his press secretary. In 1991, he was one of six individuals, one of them also being Gauck, who were awarded the

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His cordial nature – something of a contrast to the stern character of chancellor Ko ...

medal by the Theodor Heuss Foundation, on behalf of the peaceful protesters of 1989 in then-East Germany. In 1992, he left the Federal Commissioner's office to study law, and earned an LL.M. at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1998. In 2000, he passed the second state examination, qualifying as a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

. He then worked as an adviser to the

Federal Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. From 2004, he worked for the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinism, Calvinist) and united and uniting churches, United ( ...

. Following Gauck's nomination for

, Gill became head of his transition team and the designated head of the

.''David Gill – Gaucks Vertrauter fürs Schloss Bellevue''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

vom 25 February 2012 Gill was head of the Bundespräsidialamt, in the rank of state secretary, until the end of Gauck's tenure in February 2017. His successor was Stephan Steinlein. He is married to Sheila Gill, an American.''Die Herrnhuter Sterne''
Sendung des RBB vom 3 December 2011, retrieved 25 February 2012 They have two daughters.

Publications

* (with Ulrich Schröter): ''Das Ministerium für Staatssicherheit: Anatomie des Mielke-Imperiums.'' Berlin: Rowohlt 1991 ; Taschenbuch ( rororo 9369) 1993 * ''Best Practice - Bericht aus der Praxis eines Informationsbeauftragten'', in: Bettina Sokol (Hrsg.): ''Sommersymposium Informationsfreiheit'' Düsseldorf 2004, S. 51-6
Volltext

Weblink

David Gill's CV
on the website of the German Missions in the United States

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, David 21st-century German lawyers Living people 1966 births East German people