FILE - In this June 13, 2019, record photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, talks to past overseas argumentation advisor Jan Hecker, left, arsenic she arrives to invited the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev for a gathering astatine the chancellery successful Berlin, Germany. Jan Hecker, Germany's caller ambassador to China, a erstwhile advisor to Merkel, has died, the German Foreign Ministry said Monday, Sept, 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - In this June 13, 2019, record photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, talks to past overseas argumentation advisor Jan Hecker, left, arsenic she arrives to invited the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev for a gathering astatine the chancellery successful Berlin, Germany. Jan Hecker, Germany's caller ambassador to China, a erstwhile advisor to Merkel, has died, the German Foreign Ministry said Monday, Sept, 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File) (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

BERLIN – Germany's caller ambassador to China, who was antecedently a elder advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, has died astatine property 54, the German Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The ministry announced Jan Hecker's “sudden death” successful a abbreviated connection successful the aboriginal hours of Monday. It didn't springiness details of erstwhile oregon wherever Hecker died, oregon specify a origin of death.

Hecker, who became ambassador successful August, was joined and had 3 children, according to his biography connected the Foreign Ministry website.

He arrived successful China connected Aug. 1 and presented his credentials connected Aug. 24, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Hecker, a erstwhile Interior Ministry authoritative and past a justice astatine Germany's Federal Administrative Court, started enactment astatine the chancellery successful 2015 arsenic the caput of a portion coordinating exile policy. He became Merkel's overseas argumentation advisor — an influential post, though 1 with a debased nationalist illustration — successful 2017.

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Merkel said successful a connection that “Jan Hecker's decease shocks maine deeply.”

“I americium mourning an esteemed long-time advisor with heavy humanity and outstanding expertise,” the chancellor said. She added that she was “full of gratitude” to person worked with him for years and expressed her condolences to his family.

The German Embassy successful Beijing referred each remark to the Foreign Ministry successful Berlin, which did not instantly reply an email seeking further details.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.