Jürgen Ruhfus

Jürgen Ruhfus (* August 4, 1930 in Bochum ) is a German lawyer and former diplomat and Secretary of State.

Life and career

His father was a graduate engineer. Ruhfus studied law and economics in Munich and Münster as well as an exchange student in Denver, Colorado. In 1950 he joined the CDU. After Ruhfus had passed his first state examination in 1955, he was attaché at the German Foreign Office and accompanied the Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano ( CDU). In the meantime, he was vice-consul at the consulate in Dakar before Ruhfus went into the higher Foreign Service in 1959.

From 1960 he worked as a counselor of legation at the German embassy in Athens. With the publication "The constitutional position of the Court of Belgium and of the Federal Court " Ruhfus was in 1964, Dr. jur. doctorate. From 1964 to 1970 he worked in the press office of the Foreign Office, whose line Ruhfus in 1966 took over.

After he had first German ambassador in Nairobi 1970-1973, Ruhfus returned to the Foreign Office, where his field of activity was expressed in International Affairs and he was later head of department. From 1976 he worked as Head of the Division II at the Federal Chancellery. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt ( SPD) made ​​Jürgen Ruhfus to its foreign and security policy adviser, so Ruhfus was one of his closest confidants.

As the successor of Hans Hellmuth Ruete he was ambassador to London in 1980. By reshuffle Ruhfus returned at the end of 1983, the Foreign Office, where he was Permanent State Secretary in July 1984. In November 1987 he returned to the diplomatic service. Ruhfus followed Günther van Well as German ambassador in Washington. He held until the end of 1992, as Ruhfus retired in this office.

Furthermore Ruhfus in 1993 chairman of the German -British company whose honorary president he is today. Between 1992 and 2001 he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Adam Opel AG.

Jürgen Ruhfus is married and has three daughters.

Honors

Works

• The constitutional position of the Court of Belgium and of the Federal Court. Dissertation, law and political science faculty, Münster 1964
• Upward. Experiences and memories of a diplomatic eyewitnesses 1955 until 1992. EOS -Verlag, St. Ottilie 2006, ISBN 3-8306-7202-0