Scrutiny That Stuck: Journalism Forces Berlin’s Hand on Rohde

After relentless scrutiny by The Gunpowder Chronicles, Ambassador Jörn Rohde exits Kosovo, Berlin calls it “routine,” but the record shows dismissal for breaches of diplomacy and democracy.

Ambassador Jorn Rohde is gone¹. Berlin will dress his exit in the language of routine rotations, farewell receptions², and diplomatic courtesy.

But the record is clear: his dismissal follows the scrutiny that The Gunpowder Chronicles pursued relentlessly for months, exposing a tenure that stands as an embarrassment to Germany, a betrayal of the Vienna Convention³, a betrayal of Germany’s own code of diplomatic conduct⁴, and a direct affront to the principles of democracy, rule of law, and press freedom in Kosovo.

How the Record Was Built

From July to August 2025, our newsroom documented in painstaking detail a series of interventions by Mr. Rohde that no diplomat should have made:

• On Kosovo’s sovereignty: He publicly urged lawfully elected mayors to vacate their offices and called for special police to withdraw from municipal buildings in the north, statements indistinguishable from direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state⁵.

• On parliamentary paralysis: He suggested legi…