Ambassador remembers when the Wall came down

  

Dr. Wolfgang Moser, German Ambassador in Cambodia, pictured above. Photograph: Phnom Penh Post

Wednesday, 03 October 2012

Anne Renzenbrink

 

Dr Wolfgang Moser, German Ambassador in Cambodia, can look back on 35 years in the foreign service.

On the day of the German reunification he was chargé d’affaires in the Ivory Coast, “the first time where I had without any preparation to celebrate a national day,” he remembers.

“I still have a very good memory of this immense feeling of joy and of happ iness that everybody had, not only the Germans on that day, but also our local friends, the Ivoirians, the Africans who really felt with us what it meant to be a reunited country, a reunited nation, a reunited people.”

Moser says that for the first 10 or 12 years of his diplomatic life, whenever he was abroad and people asked him which country he came from, he said Germany. And then people used to ask East or West Germany.

“So finally in 1990, all this ended and then we could proudly just say, Germany, and I’m very happy about that,” he says.

Moser came to Cambodia in July 2010 after serving as Ambassador in Madagascar for four years and several other postings abroad.

“Diplomatic life is a very colourful and varied life,” Moser says.

He studied in Singapore in the 1970s and, as a sinologist, he says his roots are in Asia.

“So I feel like coming home when I come back to Asia and I’m very happy that I’m here in Cambodia as I think this country is very authentic Asia,” Moser says.

“This is my last posting and the more I am enjoying being here in Cambodia. Very nice people and very interesting country.”

In accordance with the deadline for all civil servants in Germany, Moser will be retired on the 30th of June in 2013 at the age of 65.

According to Moser, Germany and Cambodia had diplomatic relations in the 1960s that were stopped when Cambodia recognized the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1969. After 1979, it was again the GDR that together with other socialist countries established diplomatic relations.

“But we were in the happy situation that after reunification we were still having this wonderful building, this compound and the residence,” Moser says.

Thus in 1992, even before the Kingdom of Cambodia was re-established, Germany opened up a diplomatic mission.

“So as a matter of fact we are here for 20 years now,” Moser says.

Germany has been active in bilateral cooperation for 20 years now. Because they had to wait until the re-establishment of the Kingdom, Germany only has diplomatic relations for 19 years.

“So it’s a long history and I think during all this time we were very much engaged especially in the cooperation because there was lot to be built up again,” Moser says.