Dr Daniel Schmücking has been Head of the Political Communication Department of the Political Education Division since June 2023. Previously, he was head of the foreign office in Cambodia from March 2018 to 2023 and before that, he was head of the KAS office in Mongolia for about three years. He also has work experience as a consultant for the CDU Thuringia for organisation campaigns and media. In addition, the political scientist, who holds a doctorate, worked as the state executive director of the Thuringian Junge Union.

Expertise

Daniel Schmücking was born in 1982 in Germany. He studied political science and sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany) and the Palacky University in Olomouc (Czech Republic). His professional and scientific focus is on political communication and election campaigns. He worked as a campaigner for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In his dissertation he devoted himself to the topic of the effects and development of negative political advertising in Germany. As part of his doctoral studies, he spent time at the University of Maryland (USA) and the University of California (USA). He taught at universities in Jena (Germany), Erfurt (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary). From 2015-2017, he headed the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's (KAS) office in Mongolia. Since the beginning of 2018 he has been country director of KAS in Cambodia. In the beginning of 2021 he went on a special mission to become the campaign manager of CDU for the elections in the free state of Thuringia.