Susanne Wasum Rainer

Life and career

Born in Mainz, she passed her Abitur there in 1975. She started to study law at the University of Mainz, later studied at the University of Passau and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She passed her first Staatsexamen in 1981 followed by the second Staatsexamen in 1984. She earned a doctorate at the University of Passau in 1983 with a thesis to Der internationale Seegerichtshof im System der obligatorischen Streitbeilegungsverfahren der Seerechtskonvention (The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the system of obligatory...), After two years of research at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, she started her training to be an officer in diplomatic service in 1986.

After completion of the training and completion of the Attaché career examination in 1989, she worked first in the headquarters of the Foreign Office in Bonn and later at the embassy in Morocco. She returned to the Foreign Office before she was sent to the Embassy in Israel from 1991 to 1993 and staff member at the Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva until 1997.

In 2000, Wasum-Rainer returned to the Foreign Office and was first officer, after 2002 and 2006 Head of Unit Supervisor. She was most recently, from 2009 to 2012, head of the Legal Department of the Foreign Office and advisor in international law to the federal government.

Since August 2012, Wasum-Rainer has been the German ambassador to France. She is the first female person to hold the post and succeeded Reinhard Schäfers, who in turn became ambassador to Italy.

Works