Michael Steiner | |
|---|---|
_-_Michael_Steiner.jpg) Steiner in 2011 | |
| German Ambassador to India | |
| Assumed office March 2012 | |
| 3rdSpecial Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo | |
| In office 14 February 2002 – 8 July 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Hans Hækkerup |
| Succeeded by | Harri Holkeri |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-11-28)28 November 1949 (age 75) |
| Occupation | Diplomat |
Michael Steiner (born 28 November 1949) is a German diplomat who served as head of theUnited Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). He was the German Ambassador to India from March 2012 to June 2015.[1]
Michael Steiner was born on 28 November 1949 inMunich, Bavaria, Germany.[2] Steiner studiedlaw inParis and Munich from 1971 to 1977 and qualified as ajudge in 1981.
In 1981, Steiner entered theGerman Foreign Office. As a young political officer inPrague in the summer of 1989, he won plaudits for his handling of a refugee crisis that helped lead to the fall of theBerlin Wall. As hundreds ofEast Germans surrounded his embassy grounds, asking for asylum andWest German citizenship, he helped some of them over the wall himself, onto the embassy grounds, which were West German territory. Then he worked to negotiate a deal to allow the East Germans to leave the embassy and go to the West.
During his career with the German government, Steiner served as head of the liaison office for German humanitarian aid inZagreb, made his mark in the 1990s working with the so-calledContact Group of nations monitoring theYugoslav wars (of which Germany was a member), and as head of the co-ordination unit for multilateral peace efforts. He also led the special section "International Peace Efforts in Yugoslavia" from 1994 to 1995.
Steiner served nearly six months (January–July 1997) asprincipal deputy toCarl Bildt, the firstHigh Representative inSarajevo,Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1998, while serving as Germany's ambassador in Prague, he was plucked by ChancellorGerhard Schröder to work in the chancellor's office as his foreign and security policy adviser. And in 2001 he was forced to resign after the so-called "caviar affair [de]".[3]
In December 2001 he was appointed a head of theUnited Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo byUN Secretary General,Kofi Annan. He was the third special representative of the secretary general for Kosovo since UNMIK was established in 1999. He followedHans Haekkerup of Denmark andBernard Kouchner of France, and was replaced byHarri Hermani Holkeri of Finland on 8 July 2003. From April 2010 to March 2012, Steiner served as Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In March 2012 Steiner was pronounced new ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to India. On 20 July 2012, he hosted a festive ceremony at his residence in the honour ofZubin Mehta to acknowledge his outstanding contribution in the field of classical music.[4]
Michael Steiner married Eliese Steiner, an art historian.[5][6] They first met at the Colosseum in Italy.[7][8][9][10]
In early 2001, Steiner was criticized for apparently leaking information about sensitive talks between ChancellorGerhard Schröder and US PresidentGeorge W. Bush. On 2 November 2001, he had a row with three German soldiers stationed in Moscow, when Schröder's plane was delayed for refuelling on the last day of a tour of Asia. Steiner allegedly called the soldiers "arseholes" and demanded that they served him caviar during the delay. Soon after news media reported about the incident, Steiner publicly apologized and resigned from his post.[11]
To celebrate his retirement as German Ambassador to India, the German Embassy released a video onYouTube namedLebe jetzt.[12] The video was a homage to popular Hindi movieKal Ho Na Ho starringShah Rukh Khan. Steiner played the part of Khan, his wife Eliese played the part ofPreity Zinta whereas former Indian External Affairs MinisterSalman Khurshid played the part essayed bySaif Ali Khan.[13]
| International | |
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| Academics | |
