Henry Kissinger: A US secretary of state from Bavaria

Henry Kissinger — or Heinz Alfred Kissinger as he was originally named — was born on May 27, 1923, the son of Louis, a Jewish high school teacher, and Paula Kissinger, in the Bavarian city of Fürth. In 1938, when Kissinger was 15, he emigrated to the United States with his parents to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. What followed was a singular career.

"It fills me with pride," he said upon being named an honorary citizen of the city of Fürth in 1998, "to stand here as the former secretary of state of perhaps the only country in the world that would allow an adopted citizen to take on the responsibilities that I was able to practice."

Kissinger attended school in New York, and served in the US army during the last two years of World War II, among other things, in counterespionage. He completed his studies at Harvard University with a dissertation on the balance of power between the great nations prior to World War I. Today, that final dissertation belongs to the canon of modern historiography.

A dynamic political career

Kissinger quickly became the director of the university's Center for Government and International Studies in the 1950s. He made a name for himself in political circles with his analyses of the East-West conflict.

After the construction of the Berlin Wall, Kissinger advised then-President John F. Kennedy against military retaliation. In 1968, President Richard Nixon named him national security adviser. Four years later, in 1973, Kissinger became secretary of state. Kissinger remained in that office after Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

"If you analyze Watergate, the entire scandal seems to be a series of small blunders that are not exactly flattering to Nixon," he later admitted. "But in my opinion he was too harshly punished."

In 1973, Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor that was, in light of the US role in the Vietnam War, highly controversial. His critics have long highlighted his backing for anti-communist regimes, particularly in Latin America, and his policies in Southeast Asia, such as the US covert bombing of Cambodia.

Kissinger backed a strong Europe

Kissinger's unique skill was his great ability to think in geostrategic categories. Thus, he not only recognized China's rise to becoming a great power early on and consequently helped engineer a new US relationship with the People's Republic, he also identified the potential for peace that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, he played a supporting role as an adviser on German reunification.

Kissinger remained a highly sought-after speaker and adviser, even in his advanced age. Following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kissinger warned of a rupture in the trans-Atlantic partnership. He did so without giving up the standpoint of his chosen home, the US. 

"This is not about unilateralism versus multilateralism, but rather about the ability to recognize a common cause," he said. "If that exists, multilateralism never arises. A strong Europe is certainly in our best interest."

Kissinger has repeatedly made the case for a strong Europe. In 2012, during the eurozone crisis, he warned of the threat of Europe falling back into the old nation-state system. In an interview with the Financial Times in the summer of 2018, Kissinger was asked whether then-US President Donald Trump could be shocking the rest of the West to stand on its own feet.

"It would be ironic if that emerged out of the Trump era," Kissinger replied. "But it is not impossible." In his opinion, "Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretenses." He warned that "we are in a very, very grave period for the world."   

Kissinger was active until the very end, continuing to publish his thoughts on foreign policy debates and the future of artificial intelligence. Appearing virtually at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, he backed Ukraine's bid to join NATO, a turn away from his earlier position that the country should remain neutral.

In one of his final public interviews, shortly after the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, he told Welt TV that Germany had let in too many immigrants, warning that the conflict could spark a regional conflagration.

Henry Kissinger died on November 29, 2023 in Kent, Connecticut.

This article was originally written in German.

Correction, November 30, 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated the date of Kissinger's death. DW apologizes for the error.