Count Gebhardt von Moltke (28 June 1938 – 6 January 2019) was a German diplomat and ambassador.

Early life

He descended from the German noble family

Moltke The House of Moltke is the name of an old German noble family. The family was originally from Mecklenburg, but apart from Germany, some of the family branches also resided throughout Scandinavia. Members of the family have been noted as pigfarme ...

. His father was the landowner and ambassador Count Hans-Adolf von Moltke (1884–1943) on the Wernersdorf estate where he was born. His mother was Countess Davida Yorck von Wartenburg (1900–1989), the daughter of Count Heinrich Yorck von Wartenburg.

Education

In 1958, Moltke began his studies of law and national economics at the Ruprecht-Karls University of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. He graduated in 1963 after studying in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, as well as

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

and took his first state examination in the same year.

Diplomatic career

Between 1963 and 1967 Moltke took an internship and finally took his second

state examination The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists (i.e., lawyers, judges, p ...

. In 1968, he came into the higher echelons of the Foreign Service, where Gebhardt vom Moltke proceeded to work in the First Office of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

in Bonn. From 1971 until 1977 Moltke worked in the Department of the German

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

. He then returned to the Foreign Office, where he was active in the Personnel Department. Between 1982 and 1986, he worked in the Political Department of the Embassy in Washington, after which he took over the leadership of the USA's Department at the Foreign Office. In 1991 Gebhardt von Moltke became Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs at

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

in Brussels. In 1997, he was named as the

German ambassador in London The Embassy of Germany in London is the diplomatic mission of Germany in the United Kingdom. The embassy is located at Belgrave Square, in Belgravia. It occupies three of the original terraced houses in Belgrave Square and a late 20th-century ex ...

, an office which he held until 1999 when he was appointed as Permanent Representative of Germany to the

North Atlantic Council The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. It was established by Article 9 of the North A ...

of NATO. In 2003 Moltke retired from the diplomatic service and became the new chairman of the German-British Society, which is a partner in the prestigious Königswinter Conference.

Death

Gebhardt von Moltke was awarded an honorary LLD by

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 2000.

References

1938 births 2019 deaths

Gebhardt Gebhardt is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Deborah Gebhardt, basketball coach and scientist * Dixie Cornell Gebhardt (1866–1955), American designer of the state flag of Iowa * Eric "Red Mouth" Gebhardt, American ...

Ambassadors of Germany to the United Kingdom People from Wrocław County People from the Province of Silesia Permanent Representatives of Germany to NATO Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{Germany-diplomat-stub