Biography of Dr. Volker Stanzel

Dr. Volker Stanzel was born in 1948 in Frankfurt am Main. He is married with two children. He studied Japanese Studies, Chinese Studies, and Political Science in Frankfurt University, Kyoto University and Cologne University. He received his PhD from Cologne University.

Dr. Stanzel joined the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979 and has worked at the German Embassies in Rome, Tokyo, Aden and Beijing.

He has headed the Press and Information Department at the German Embassy in Beijing (1990-93), the Operation Center at the Foreign Office in Bonn (1993-95) and the Department for Non-proliferation and Civilian Use of Nuclear Energy at the Foreign Office in Berlin (1999-2001). From 1995 to 1998 Dr. Stanzel was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the German Bundestag. In 1998-99 he was Visiting Fellow of the German Marshall Fund in the United States at Washington. In 2001-02 he was Director for Asian & Pacific Affairs. In 2002-04 he was Director-General for Political Affairs. He assumed his position of German Ambassador to China in September 2004.

Dr. Stanzel occasionally publishes on political and East Asian affairs. His publications in English include: A World of Warring States: China's Perception and Possibilities of its International Role, 1997; NATO after Enlargement, 1998; Dealing with the Backwoods: New Problems in Transatlantic Relations, 1999; Remembering and Forgetting: But Will the Past Forget about Us? 2001; Germany's Defense at the Hindukush. The Experiment of Afghanistan, 2005. Books published in German include Japan: Head of the Earth, 1982; Winds of Change: East Asia's New Revolution, 1997; China's Foreign Policy, 2001.