Day of Peacekeeping 2025 honours german mission staff

The German Day of Peacekeeping took place for the 12th time on 3 June 2025. The Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Defence, together with ZIF, honoured German mission personnel.

This year's host was the Ministry of the Interior. State Secretary Hans-Georg Engelke opened the ceremony. ‘Your deployments are foreign policy in action,’ he summarised. Engelke, Minister of State Serap Güler for the Federal Foreign Office and State Secretary Nils Hilmer for the Ministry of Defence then awarded three police officers, three civilian experts and three soldiers for their services in international peacekeeping and crisis management missions. Together with members of the German Bundestag, they then interviewed the laureates about their experiences in the field.

The 9 German ‘Peacekeepers of the Year’ receive this award representing all those deployed in international peace missions under often challenging living and working conditions - currently around 1,200 Germans with and without uniform. Since 2013, with the aim of an integrated approach, the three ministries have been celebrating the ‘Day of Peacekeeping’ to express their appreciation and thanks to all German peacekeeping personnel.

Creating conditions for long-term peace

Peacekeeping missions not only serve to ‘restore security, but also to create the conditions for long-term peace’, Serap Güler explained in her laudatory speech. ‘With you, we are honouring the people who implement peacekeeping, who embody it, who make it better every day and make it what it still is: a central pillar of multilateralism,’ she thanked the laureates. ZIF is currently seconding 171 men and women to international peace and humanitarian missions, criminal tribunals, institutions, headquarters and delegations on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office.

This year's awarded German peacekeepers have worked or are still working for the EU in Georgia, Moldova and the West Bank, for the UN in Somalia, Western Sahara and Lebanon, for NATO in Kosovo and for the Council of Europe in Ukraine were honoured.

Honoured civilian peacekeepers 2025

• Jörg Krempel, Deputy Head of Mission and Chief of Staff, EU Police Mission in the Palestinian Territories in the West Bank (EUPOL COPPS)
• Petra Neumann, Legal Advisor for the Damage Register for Ukraine to document the damage caused by the Russian war of aggression (‘Damage Register UKR’), Netherlands
• Cornelia Taylor, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo

Honoured police officers 2025

• Detective Superintendent (KOK) Max Brunner, Reporting and Information Officer, European Union Monitoring Mission in Armenia (EUMM)
• Senior Police Director Silke Sielaff, Head of Operations, European Union Partnership Mission in the Republic of Moldova (EUPM)
• Police Commissioner Ralf Schröder, Police Commissioner, United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM)

Honoured soldiers 2025

• Lieutenant-Captain Selina Marie Kraft, First Maritime Task Force Officer (Sea) and Military Assistant to the Commander Maritime Task Force (Land), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
• Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Lingner, Senior Military Logistics Adviser, The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)
• Sergeant Major Thora Sude, Material Management Sergeant, Kosovo Force (KFOR)