Tel Aviv, Moscow, Mexico City, Madrid, Beijing, New Delhi and Brasília.. The “Spiegel” reports this based on its own information. In government circles it was said that, on Wadephul’s suggestion, the regular rotation is now unified. The cabinet is expected to approve the roster this Wednesday.
According to the “Spiegel”, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who is currently Ambassador to Moscow, will move to Tel Aviv. He will replace Ambassador Steffen Seibert, who normally will retire. Seibert, formerly a government spokesperson under Chancellor Angela Merkel, took up the post in the summer of 2022.
In Moscow the successor will be Ambassador Clemens von Goetze, who currently heads the mission in Mexico City. Von Goetze has previously served as Ambassador in Tel Aviv, Beijing and Tokyo. The current Ambassador to Madrid, Maria Margarete Gosse, will take over in Mexico City. She led the central department of the Foreign Office in Berlin from 2018 to 2022.
In Madrid, and somewhat surprisingly, Ambassador Heiko Thoms will take the post. Thoms assumed the role in Kyiv at Wadephul’s request in the summer, after the German government appointed Martin Jäger to head the Federal Intelligence Service there. His successor in Ukraine has not yet been decided by the cabinet.
Changes at the Embassy in New Delhi also affect the Ministry of Defence leadership under Boris Pistorius. Jasper Wieck, currently a Political Director in the ministry’s headquarters, will return to India, where he previously served as Deputy Ambassador from 2017 to 2020.
Wieck will replace Philipp Ackermann, who is moving to Beijing as Ambassador. Ackermann has also worked as a Special Envoy in Washington and led Political Department 3 at the Foreign Office, which handles relations with the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Former Ambassador Patricia Flor will become the new German Ambassador to Brasília. Before taking up the post in China, she led the European Union delegation in Tokyo and worked at the Foreign Office in the Department for International Order, United Nations and Arms Control. She succeeds Ambassador Bettina Cadenbach, who will retire as planned.
When asked by the “Spiegel”, the Foreign Office noted that, by custom, many colleagues change posts every summer at the so‑called unified transfer date, including numerous heads of German missions abroad. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the host country must first be informed of a planned posting of ambassadors, and the host government’s consent must be obtained. This follows good diplomatic and protocol practice. “To avoid pre‑empting the host nation’s decision, we normally confirm personal details only after receiving consent from the host government” the Foreign Office said.
