Hanno Burkhard Rumpf (15 September 1958 – 8 February 2019) was a

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

n politician (

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

) and diplomat.

Early life

Rumpf, the son of well-known farmer and right-wing National Party member Ernst Rumpf, grew up on the Combumbi parental farm in the community of Steinhausen. He received his secondary education in

Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...

and studied political science, African history and economics at

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

and

Rand Afrikaans University The Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surroundings from 1967 to 2004. It has since merged with the Technikon Witwatersrand ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. During his studies, Rumpf was active in the progressive student movement and briefly secretary-general of the Namibian student movement. Rumpf was in the early 1980s one of the few white members of SWAPO. Because he did not want to do military service with the South African armed forces, he went into exile in 1984. Until 1987 he was initially a research assistant at the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

, and later a member of the Namibian Communications Centre in London.

Career

Between 1987 and 1989, Rumpf worked as press spokesman for the

agency in Bonn. After Namibia's independence, Rumpf served as permanent secretary in the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (1990–1995), the Ministry of Trade and Industry (1995–1999) and the National Planning Commission (1999–2003). From 2003 to 2006 Rumpf was Namibian ambassador to Germany. He was subsequently ambassador to the Benelux countries, Switzerland and the European Union in Brussels until December 2015. In 1998, Rumpf was awarded the

Federal Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

1st Class by the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rumpf, Hanno 2019 deaths 1958 births SWAPO politicians Ambassadors of Namibia to Germany Southern African Development Community people Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany White Namibian people