Günther van Well  Günther Wilhelm Van Well (15 October 1922 – 14 August 1993) was a German diplomat, Secretary of State from 1977 to 1981, and West German Ambassador to the United States from 1984 to 1987. In the early seventies, as Assistant Secretary and Assistant Secretary in the Foreign Office, he was in the development of rapprochement with the GDR, as well as the four-power agreement. As Acting Secretary of State, he was appointed by then-foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, as his personal representative for disaster prevention. Following his work as secretary of state, he was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations. After that, he served as German ambassador in Washington, DC. As a retired ambassador, he engaged as a participant in the "Bergedorf Round Table" of the Körber Foundation, among many other celebrities for an understanding of international problems and issues, as well as Executive Vice President of the German Council on Foreign Relations, Bonn.