Jürgen Chrobog (born 28 February 1940) is a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and former

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

. He worked in the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and the reunified Germany and among other diplomatic postings, was Ambassador to the United States from 1995 to 2001.

Life and career

Chrobog was born in Berlin. He studied law in the 1960s in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, and

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

and then worked as an attorney in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. In 1972, he joined the diplomatic service of the Federal Republic of Germany, which he served in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

in New York. A member of the Freie Demokratische Partei, from 1973 to 1977 he worked in the German

under foreign ministers Walter Scheel and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, where he was responsible for European issues as well as the

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

. In 1977, he was dispatched to Singapore, and in 1980, to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

headquarters in Brussels. From 1984 to 1991, Chrobog was the head of the press division as well as the spokesperson for the Foreign Office, and beginning in 1988, directed Genscher's ministerial office. From 1995 to 2001, he was the German ambassador to the United States. After this posting, he returned to Berlin as State Secretary of the German Federal Foreign Office, under foreign minister Joschka Fischer. Chrobog represented West Germany at the 2+4 negotiations with

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

and the four victorious powers of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France) concerning the

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

and its future as a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

member, and referred to those negotiations in a meeting of the directors of the US, UK, French, and German foreign ministries in Bonn. After the meeting of the political directors of the US, British, French and German foreign ministries in Bonn on 6 March 1991, Chrobog wrote: “We made it clear in the two-plus-four negotiations that we would not take NATO beyond the Elbe stretch. We can therefore not offer Poland and the others NATO membership." In 2003, as undersecretary of state, Chrobog was responsible for dealing with the crisis provoked by the kidnapping of German tourists in Algeria. Chrobog retired in 2005 and became chairman of the supervisory board at the . In late December that year, he and his family were abducted while traveling on vacation in eastern Yemen; they were released on 31 December.

Personal life

Chrobog and his wife, Magda Gohar-Chrobog, have three sons.

Sources

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chrobog, Jurgen 1940 births 2000s missing person cases Ambassadors of Germany to the United States Diplomats from Berlin Formerly missing German people German people taken hostage Jurists from Berlin Living people Kidnapped German people Missing person cases in Yemen Paul Cézanne University alumni

Life and career

Personal life

See also

Sources

External links