Heads of state and government from all over the world remember the late US politician Henry Kissinger, who died last Wednesday (November 29th) at the age of 100. The official decisive and he was always close to his German homeland. The world has lost a great diplomat.”
In a press release, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (67) echoed similar words: “With Henry Kissinger, we are losing an impressive man with an incredible life story: the contemporary witness of a century, the driving intellectual force of US foreign policy for many decades, the guardian of transatlantic relations .” As such, he laid “the foundation for the end of the Cold War and for democratic change in Eastern Europe.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (56) points out with regard to Kissinger that “not all of his positions […] were uncontroversial”. “But he was one of the most important and cleverest foreign policymakers of the last century,” he says on X. “What will remain above all is his greatness in extending a hand to our country after the Second World War and being bound in friendship until the end,” adds Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (42).
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (65) also wrote via
“With the passing of Henry Kissinger, America has lost one of the most reliable and distinctive voices on foreign policy matters,” said a statement from former US President George W. Bush (77). He will forever be grateful to Kissinger for his advice, “but most of all for his friendship. Laura and I will miss his wisdom, his charm and his humor.”
The Republican Kissinger was US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977, and previously National Security Advisor to Presidents Richard Nixon (1913-1994) and Gerald Ford (1913-2006) from 1969 to 1975.
Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1923. In 1938, the Jewish-Orthodox family fled the Nazi regime to the USA. During World War II, Kissinger joined the U.S. Army as an interpreter and became a naturalized citizen.