Matthias Hespe

Matthias Hespe has been working as a country specialist in the Europe/North America Department (EIZ) since July 2025. Here, he is responsible for most of the countries in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Prior to this, Mr Hespe spent a year as a subject specialist in the field of maritime security in the International Politics and Security Department (AuB). At the beginning of his career at KAS, he worked for two years as a trainee in the Regional Programme Political Dialogue South Caucasus in Georgia and Armenia from 2022 to 2024. After completing his bachelor's degree in European Studies in Osnabrück and at the University of Agder in Kristiansand (Norway), he supported the work of the ethnic German minority in Ukraine in Kyiv from 2017 to 2018. He then completed a master's degree in political science at the University of Bonn. Various internships took him to the German Bundestag, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), among others.