Jens Hanefeld

Jens Hanefeld completed his master’s degree at the Free University of Berlin in 1990 and began work at the Foreign Office the following year. His early overseas assignments took him to Sofia and Washington. He subsequently served as private secretary to a state secretary and then headed the office supporting the Foreign Office’s state secretaries. ¹

Hanefeld returned to Washington as deputy chief of mission from 2009 to 2014. He then spent a decade on secondment to Volkswagen, directing international, European, and trade policy as a senior vice president. In 2024, he returned to embassy leadership in Addis Ababa, where he also represented Germany as permanent observer to the African Union. ¹

His appointment to lead the Washington embassy in 2025 brought him back for a third American posting. ¹