Features on these issues provide subjects for discussion and enhance the conversation on Talking Germany. Peter Craven asks Gunter Pleuger about his challenging career as a diplomat. The politician talks about the Viadrina European University, the home for not just German students, but also for many eastern European students - as well as about Pleuger's hometown Wismar, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.

Short Biography

Gunter Pleuger was born in 1941 in Wismar, a small port in northern Germany. He holds a doctorate in law. After serving as Germany's junior foreign minister, he was the country's ambassador to the United Nations from 2002 to 2006. During his tenure, Germany confronted its US and British allies over the Iraq conflict. After retiring from international politics, Pleuger was elected president of the Viadrina European Univeristy in Frankfurt on the Oder in the summer of 2008.