Rüdiger von Wechmar

Rüdiger von Wechmar    (diplomat, journalist)
Born	15 November 1923
Died	17 October 2007 (Age 83)
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Napola Berlin-Spandau, University of Minnesota
Parents	Irnfried Freiherr von Wechmar
Party	Free Democratic Party (Germany)
German diplomat  Member of the European Parliament In office 1989 - 1994 Preceded by Dominique Baudis, Enzo Bettiza, Bob Cryer, Hanja Maij-Weggen Succeeded by Dominique Baudis, Luigi Caligaris, Efthimios Christodoulou, Marie-France Garaud, James Goldsmith, Antoinette Spaak, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Helene Carrere d'Encausse  Germany/Ambassador to the UK In office 1985 - 1989  Germany/Ambassador/Italy In office 1981 - 1983  Germany/Permanent Representative/UN In office 1974 - 1981  Government Spokesperson In office 1973 - 1974 Employer Willy Brandt deputy from 1968  Eastern Europe correspondent In office 1963 - 1968 Employer ZDF

Baron Rüdiger von Wechmar was a German journalist and diplomat who attended the 1980 and1981 Bilderberg meeting.

Background

Rüdiger von Wechmar was the only son of the professional officer Irnfried von Wechmar and his wife Ilse von Binzer (1895-1980). He grew up in Berlin. The family has its origin in the Thuringian town of Wechmar.

Education and WW2

Following the family tradition, he completed military training at the Napola Berlin-Spandau, a National Socialist elite educational institution. As a 17-year-old with an emergency baccalaureate, von Wechmar volunteered for the Wehrmacht in 1941 and was deployed for two years in the Afrika Korps under Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, in the regiment that his father had led shortly before.

He was taken to the USA as a prisoner of war. During his three and a half years as a prisoner of war, he took a correspondence course in journalism at the University of Minnesota through the American YMCA.

Post-war career

Back in Germany, he began a career as a journalist, first at the American UPI press agency, for which he among other things reported on the Nuremberg trials. In Bonn in 1950 he was with his father one of the co-founders of the [[Federal Press Conference],a union of journalists that report exclusively for German media, and who primarily report from Berlin and Bonn.

In 1958 he joined the Foreign Service as a press officer at the Consulate General in New York. In New York, he was also a staff member at the permanent observer mission to the United Nations.

Thanks to the support of his friend Walter Cronkite, he was able to get to know the television business at CBS Evening News in the USA. in 1963 he left the diplomatic service to become a foreign correspondent for Eastern Europe in Vienna of the newly founded Second German Television (ZDF). In 1968 he became a civil servant again, first as director of the German Information Center in New York, then in 1969 under Conrad Ahlers deputy government spokesman.

In 1973, von Wechmar was appointed government spokesman and remained his government spokesman until the end of Chancellor Willy Brandt's term of office, until he became the permanent representative of the Federal Republic to the United Nations in 1974. He represented the West Germany in the UN Security Council in 1977 and 1978, also as its president for two months. In 1980/1981 he was the chairman of the UN General Assembly.

From 1981 to 1983 he was Ambassador in Rome, from 1983 to 1988 Ambassador in London.

From 1989 to 1994, von Wechmar was a member of the European Parliament for the FDP and chairman of the German group in the Liberal Group (ELDE). In the election for President of the European Parliament, he received the second best result out of six candidates with 93 votes in the session of 25 July 1989, but had to admit defeat to the Social Democrat Enrique Barón Crespo.

From 1971 to 1973 and from 1982 to 1990 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Marriages

Rüdiger von Wechmar was married twice. in [[1947] he married Rosemarie Warlimont, with whom he had two children. In 1958, the couple broke up. In New York he met Susanne Woldenga, the daughter of the fighter pilot Bernhard Woldenga, married her and had a child with her. He last lived in Munich. The 83-year-old succumbed to the consequences of a stroke in a hospital.

[[Display born on::15 November 1923| ]][[Display died on::17 October 2007| ]] 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1980	18 April 1980	20 April 1980	Germany Aachen	The 28th Bilderberg, held in West Germany, unusually exposed by the Daily Mirror
Bilderberg/1981	15 May 1981	17 May 1981	Switzerland Palace Hotel Bürgenstock	The 29th Bilderberg

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