Rücker, Joachim

Joachim Rucker was born May 30, 1951 in the city of Schwäbisch Hall in the family of a municipal employee, and grew up in the city of Ebersbach an der Fils , which is also located in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany ^{[5] [6]} . According to the program for the exchange of students between secondary schools in 1968/1969, Rucker spent the school year in the United States . In 1971, he graduated from high school and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany ^{[6] [7]} .

In 1971-1973, Rücker served in the civilian alternative service at the German Red Cross hospital in Israel , giving up military service in the Bundeswehr for political reasons ^{[5] [6]} . If until the mid-1960s only about four thousand people a year chose alternative service (mainly it was the communists who did not want to fight against the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries ), then after the student unrest of 1968 and the politicization of youth there was a significant increase in the number of “refuseniks” ". In 1971, the first civil service school was opened in Germany, compulsory for all “refuseniks”, in which they were trained to provide first aid, explained the rights and obligations in alternative services, and lectured on the theory of state and law ^[8] .

Since 1973, Rücker studied economics at the University of Freiburg , after which he received a diploma in political economics . In 1979-1991, he worked in the economic department and planning headquarters of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs , and spent several years abroad - in Vienna ( Austria ), Dar es Salaam ( Tanzania ) and Detroit (USA) ^{[5] [6]} .

In 1991, Rücker became a consultant to the SPD faction in the Bundestag ^{[6] [7]} . In August 1993, he was elected Oberburgomaster of the city of Sindelfingen ( administrative district of Stuttgart in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg), he worked as the head of the executive branch of the city until April 2001 ^{[5] [6] [9]} . At the same time, in 1995-2001 he was a member of the SPD faction in the administrative district of Stuttgart, and in 1998-2001 he was also the chairman of the KulturRegion Stuttgart association ^[6] .

In May 2001, Rücker was appointed Ambassador and Deputy Administrative and Financial Affairs High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina . In July 2002, he returned to Germany and soon became head of the finance department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ^{[5] [6] [7]} . In February 2005, Rücker headed the Department of Economic Development of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) ^{[10] [6] [11] [7]} . In addition, he was part of the leadership of the Kosovo Trust Agency, which was engaged in the management and privatization of enterprises in the province ^{[11] [12]} . The Serbs accused Rücker of conducting illegal privatization, during which the Albanians got 268 enterprises, for which 270 million euros were earned ^{[11] [13] [14]} .

On 14 August 2006, Rücker was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNMIK, and on 1 September 2006 assumed his duties ^{[15] [5] [16] [11]} . He became the 6th head of the international administration that ruled the region since 1999. Rücker dealt exclusively with the administrative affairs of the region, while the process of determining the status of Kosovo was led by Marti Ahtisaari , special envoy of the UN Secretary General ^{[11] [15]} . Nevertheless, Rücker has repeatedly spoken out in support of the Albanian provisional institutions of power in Kosovo ^{[17] [18]} , hoping to be the last head of UNMIK ^[11] .

On February 17, 2008, the Kosovo parliament declared independence of the region ^[19] . This decision was recognized by many leading countries of the world, including the USA, France , Germany and Great Britain , while many states did not recognize the independence of the region ^{[20] [21]} . In June 2008, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thachi announced the need to “reformat” the UN mission after the new Kosovo constitution came into force on June 15, and Russia accused Rücker of trying to curtail the mission. ^[22] A few days after this, Rücker was replaced as head of mission by Italian diplomat Lamberto Zannier ^[23] .

In the fall of 2008, there were reports that Rücker would become the German ambassador to Sweden ^[24] . He officially took up this position on November 12, 2008. ^[25]

Rücker is married to Ines Kirschner , they have three children. Rücker is fond of skiing, tennis and athletics ^{[5] [6] [24]} .

• Personal website (German) (English) (French)
• Rücker, Joachim - an article in the Lentapedia . year 2012.

• When writing this article, we used material ( text in Wikisource ) from Lentapedia , available under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported license .