Michael Steiner, 65, had a long diplomatic career, though many remember him primarily for the scandal that cost him his job as Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s foreign policy advisor. On a trip home from China, his plane got held up in Moscow and he got into an argument with a German military officer, ultimately calling the official an “asshole,” according to media accounts of the incident. He also demanded caviar — as a joke, Steiner continues to insist to this day. Nonetheless, he was run out of office by the tabloid press a short time later.
Still, he can look back on a long career as a German diplomat. He was at Schröder’s side on Sept. 11, 2001, he served as Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, he was head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo and, early on in his career, he was press attaché at the German Embassy in Prague in the fall of 1989, as the communist bloc was crumbling. Other postings include an extended stint as deputy high representative in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. SPIEGEL spoke with him about his long diplomatic career. The following are excerpts from that interview.
SPIEGEL: Caviar-gate wasn’t the only time you landed in the headlines due to an ill-considered remark or an unorthodox approach to diplomacy. In retrospect, might you have needed just a bit more self-restraint?
Steiner: You know, during my time in Bosnia in the 1990s, I worked very closely and very successfully together with Richard Holbrooke, who was President Bill Clinton’s special envoy to the Balkans. He was a diplomat, but he was one of the most direct people I know. Back then, he held a round of talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in an Air Force museum where a cruise missile was on display, just to make clear to Milosevic what could be in store for him if he refused to back down. I was never a fan of Talleyrandian diplomacy, which conceals its true motives and spreads an aura of secrecy. I don’t think it works.
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