Volker Stanzel was born in 1948 in Frankfurt am Main, is married and has two children. He took Japanese and Chinese Studies and Political Science at the universities in Frankfurt, Kyoto and Cologne and received his PhD from Cologne University. He joined the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979 and has worked at the German Embassies in Rome, Tokyo, Aden and Peking. He has headed the Press and Information Department at the German Embassy in Peking (1990 - 1993), the Operation Center at the Foreign Office in Bonn (1993 - 1995) and the Department for Non-proliferation and Civilian Use of Nuclear Energy at the Foreign Office in Berlin (1999 - 2001). From 1995 to 1998 Volker Stanzel was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the German Bundestag, 1998/1999 Visiting Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington. From August 2001 until June 2002 he was Director for Asian & Pacific Affairs. From July 2002 until July 2004 he was Director-General for Political Affairs. In September 2004, he assumed his position of German Ambassador to China. On August 27, 2007 he became Political Director. Since December 2009 Dr.Stanzel is Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Japan.
