On Friday 25 October 2013, the Federal Foreign Office is paying tribute to Klaus Schütz, former Governing Mayor of Berlin, State Secretary and Ambassador who passed away in November 2012. His heirs have donated part of his extensive private library to the Federal Foreign Office.

In a ceremony attended by many political associates and close friends, Klaus Schütz’ family will present more than 450 selected volumes illustrating the political life’s work of the deceased to State Secretary Harald Braun for the library of the Federal Foreign Office. The books focus primarily on diplomacy, the United States, Israel, international politics, German history and politics, German-Jewish history and Berlin.

Background:

Klaus Schütz, born on 17 September 1926, served as State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office from 1966 to 1967 under the Federal Foreign Minister Willy Brandt before being elected Governing Mayor of Berlin in 1967. After ten years in office, he was posted to Israel as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1977 to 1981.

The library of the Federal Foreign Office (back then the Prussian Department for Foreign Affairs) was founded in 1798. Today it is housed in the new building of the Federal Foreign Office at Werderscher Markt and boasts more than 320,000 volumes, approximately 500 series of journals, 80 daily newspapers from around the world, more than 90,000 maps and numerous loose‑leaf editions.