Interview with David Gill - Consul General of Germany in New York

DAVID GILL

About His New Role as Consul General in New York

David Gill held many different positions during his career: he grew up in Oberlausitz, as the son of a pastor and went on to study theology until he became Chairman of Normannenstrasse Citizens’ Committee at the headquarters of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) and then Head of Administration and was later part of the Parliamentary Special Committee for the dissolution of the GDR Ministry of State Security/Office of National Security. After the reunification he was Spokesman and Head of Division of the Federal Commissioner for the Files of the State Security Service of the former GDR. Shortly after, he returned to academia to study law at the universities of Berlin and Philadelphia. After that he worked for the Federal Ministry of the Interior and with the Office of Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Berlin and was the Deputy Representative of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) to the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union for 8 years. The highlight of his career so far was State Secretary and Head of the Office of the Federal President from 2012-2107 in the Joachim Gauck administration. Since August 2017 he serves as Consul General in New York.

Mr. Gill, what brought you to New York? In my previous position as Head of the Office of the Federal President,foreign policy became more and more important to me and I enjoyed to grow, maintain, and strengthen relationships between Germany and other countries. That was one of the main impulses that led me to switch career paths to the Foreign Service.. It’s not too surprising that we ended up in a city in the US. In the past 20 years, I not only cultivated strong business relationships but also personal ones – my wife is American.

What are your duties as consul general? Consulates have 3 main duties. First: regular consular services like visa applications, passport renewals and support with citizenship issues. Second: We talk about Germany and try to make our country more

accessible for Americans by explaining political developments and their reasons, and also to represent German economy and culture. And third, we try to understand America and paint a realistic picture for the political decision makers in Germany. The country is a lot more complex and multi-leveled than conveyed by the media. To demonstrate the complexity of your host country is one of the essential tasks of all diplomats in the Foreign Service.

What’s a typical day for you? There is no typical day. And there is rarely a day when I spend the whole day in the office. There are just too many events and meetings I need to attend. It becomes very clear when you look at the past few days in my calendar: I gave the opening speech for the expansion of the German International

School New York (GISNY), was invited for dinner by the governor of New Jersey, had a meeting with the new president of the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies, attended a memorial service for 9/11 together with the national chairman of the Green Party and held a press conference for New York based German journalists. In addition, we are currently planning numerous activities around the “Deutschlandjahr". That also keeps me on the move. If I just sat in my office with the same everyday routine, I would definitely be doing something wrong.

You grew up in the GDR, a country which openly propagated anti-americanism. What image did you personally have of the United States? Young people in the GDR weren’t that different from their counterparts in the West when it came to their wishes and dreams: tnihey wanted to wear jeans and listen to rock and pop music. They were equally fascinated by the American way of life as young people in West Germany. And essentially, they knew how to deal with the constant propaganda. And don’t forget: about 80 percent of GDR citizens watched West German TV programs. Personally, I had the added benefit that I did not grow up in a typical GDR family. My father was a pastor in a small Protestant church, the “Herrnhuter Brüdergemeinde” (Herrnhuter community of brothers) which was founded in the 18th century in my home town and had also spread to North America. Even in the most restrictive times of the GDR regime, we always had visitors from all over the world, even from America. These personal encounters probably shaped the view of my country more than official propaganda.

In the nineties you lived in Philadelphia to study law. What attracted you to the US at that time? During the GDR, America has always been the land of my dreams. When I had the chance to travel to the US with different transatlantic organizations in the nineties, I knew that I really wanted to live in this country at some point. With my studies in Philadelphia,

I was able to fulfill this dream. And on top of that, I was able to earn a Masters of Law –a degree that’s quite valuable in my field.

What was your first impression of the country? I traveled to the US for the first time in 1991. And I have to admit, I was completely fascinated. I was very lucky to be invited for a 3 week round trip with the German Marshall Fund. During this trip, we got a glimpse into the multi-faceted layers of this country – the beautiful sides, but also the challenges: from the highly political Washington D.C., to the abundant green of Minnesota, the Golden Gate Bridge and to the colorful Bronx dealing with immense social problems a that time. These insights have remained with me since.

Since 2017 you live in New York. What do you like most about this city? The diversity of the people who live here and the variety of the cultures who share this city. There is a rich cultural life and the architecture is quite fascinating. I have been living in New York for over a year now and could still just walk for hours through the city admiring the buildings and streets.

And what have you learned to appreciate about Germany while living abroad? The social balance. Even though the divide between rich and poor grew in Germany as well, Germans don’t experience such drastic differences in income, health insurance, and education between the socio-economic classes or between city and country populations, which can be attributed to our social security system. That’s something we Germans can be very proud of.

In America, the general conviction is that you can do anything if you work hard – no matter where you come from. When you look at your own life – how much of your professional success would you attribute to luck and coincidence and how much to hard work and dedication? Coincidences certainly play a crucial role in everyone’s life and career. Sometimes you are just at the right place at the right time. At the same time, I believe in the saying “von nichts kommt nichts” (trans:

nothing comes from nothing). Growing up in a parsonage in the GDR, for example, taught me a lot that helped me later in life. I learned to speak up, tackle issues head on, get involved and think politically. Also studying law – which I only started at age 26 by the way – definitely didn’t hurt my later career path.

You grew up in a dictatorship and now you live in America, the self-proclaimed “Land of the Free”. What does freedom mean for you and what role does it play in your life? Freedom is the lifeblood of each emancipated human being. It is the absolute foundation for anyone who wants to shape and positively change society and the environment in which he or she lives. At the same time, I believe that even in situations of oppression, everyone can create a certain amount of freedom if you have strong personal beliefs and find like minded allies.

Thank you for the conversation, Mr. Gill.