Bernd Erbel

Bernd Erbel ( born December 11, 1947 in simmering ) is a German diplomat and was from 2009 to 2013 Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Iran.

Life

Bernd Erbel visited in Karlsruhe grammar school and graduated from high school. He then studied law in Munich and Oriental Studies. At the age of 16, he traveled to Arab countries. First, he went to Egypt, and learned the Arabic language. He completed his state examination in law and entered into the Foreign Service on 1 April 1975.

From 1977 Erbel worked as a lecturer at the embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut. At this time reigned in the country's civil war. Later he worked as permanent representative to the Embassy in Sana'a, Riyadh, and from 1995 to 1999 in Cairo. In the meantime, he was in the former German capital Bonn speaker in the Mediterranean Section of the Foreign Office. In 1999, he took over the leadership of the organization Referates in the Foreign Office and October 2001, the leadership of the Task Force information technology. In this role, he led the project of the full networking of all German missions abroad.

From July 2004 to August 2006 Bernd Erbel served as ambassador to Iraq. During the Iraq war in 2003, he was sent for in-depth analysis of the local situation to Kuwait. As a mediator and diplomat, he was instrumental in the release of Susanne Osthoff, and René Brownish and Thomas Nitzschke.

In August 2006, he took over as successor to Martin Kobler, the ambassador in Baghdad, was the ambassador to Cairo until the summer of 2009. During his time in Egypt succeeded Erbel that the unifying exhibition of United Buddy Bears before they traveled on to Jerusalem could make a stop on the banks of the Nile, on the island of Gezira, for 6 weeks. Just one day after the official opening by Egypt's First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak, the governor of Cairo, Abdel Azim Wazir, and Erbel, there was a scandal, because the participant Land of Israel was excluded from further presence in Cairo.

From October 2009, Bernd Erbel the German ambassador in Tehran ( Iran), in July 2013 took over Michael Baron von Ungern- Sternberg the post.

In its work in Lebanon Bernd Erbel met his current wife May, with whom he has two sons and a daughter.