Former US Ambassador to Germany, John Kornblum, Passes Away at 80

John Kornblum, the former US ambassador to Germany, has passed away at the age of 80. The diplomat had a strong connection to the German-speaking region.

US diplomat John Kornblum has died at the age of 80 in Nashville, Tennessee. The US ambassador to Germany, Amy Gutmann, confirmed his death on the online service X. Previously, the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”, citing Kornblum’s family, reported that he had died on Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee. Gutmann expressed her condolences to Kornblum’s family on X and thanked her predecessor for his “admirable lifelong service to all of us”. After his “decades-long career,” Kornblum worked during his retirement to promote “strong US-German relations.”

Kornblum served as his country’s ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001 but had already been connected to the country in various ways. Born on February 3, 1943, in Detroit, Kornblum studied German and political science at Michigan State University. He then pursued a career in diplomacy, studying international politics at Georgetown University in Washington.

A rapid rise in his early years

At the young age of 21, Kornblum joined the State Department in 1964 and became an expert in issues related to the division of Germany, Central Europe, and the East-West conflict. In early 1965, he was assigned as a vice consul to the consulate in Hamburg. In 1969, he was sent to the political department of the embassy in Bonn, where he was responsible for divided Berlin and East German affairs until 1973.

Since 1970, he has also been a member of the US delegation in negotiations with the three other victorious powers on the future of divided Berlin. This process led to the conclusion of the Four Power Agreement on Berlin in 1972, which more or less confirmed the status quo of division and resolved pragmatic issues. At the State Department in Washington, Kornblum was part of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s policy planning staff from 1973 to 1975. After that, he mainly dealt with Central European issues and countries beyond the Iron Curtain in Washington.

Experienced negotiator

In 1977, he coordinated the US delegation at the Belgrade follow-up meeting of the 1975 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The core issue of the conference was consultations for building trust between the blocs. From 1977 to 1979, Kornblum headed the European regional affairs department at the State Department.

He made a name for himself on the international stage as a negotiator and US envoy in the Yugoslavia conflict. From July 1996 until his nomination as US ambassador to Germany in May 1997, he headed the European Affairs Bureau at the US State Department.

After his term as US ambassador to Germany ended in 2001, Kornblum joined investment bank Lazard, where he became the head of Germany.