Gerhard Herder (born 13 August 1928) is a former German diplomat who served as an ambassador for East Germany to Lebanon and to the United States from 1983 until 2 October 1990, following the collapse of the GDR.

He was released from captivity in 1949 and became a member of the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

From 1951 to 1953 he studied foreign policy and law at the German Academy of Political and Legal Sciences (DASR) in Potsdam-Babelsberg.

From 1962 he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR (MfAA) until 1963 as a deputy and then until 1965 as head of the legal and contracting department and as a scientific advisor to State Secretary Otto Winzer.

Herder was appointed as the third and ultimately the last ambassador to the U.S. in 1983 and began serving on 12 July 1983, when he presented his credentials to President Ronald Reagan.