GERMAN-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME

Dr. Henry Kissinger

Year of Birth: 1923

Area of Achievement: Government & Military

GAMHOF Year Inducted: 2014

Henry Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923 in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany during the Weimar Republic as Heinz Alfred Kissinger. His father, Louis Kissinger (1887-1982), was a schoolteacher. His mother, Paula (Stern) Kissinger (1901-1998), was a homemaker. In 1938, fleeing Nazi persecution, his family moved to London, England, before arriving in New York on September 5.

Kissinger spent his high school years in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan. After enrolling in the City College of New York, studying accounting in 1943, he was drafted in the U.S. Army. Henry Kissinger received his AB degree summa cum laude in political science at Harvard College in 1950.

In 1968 President Nixon made Kissinger National Security Advisor. From 1973 to 1977 was the 56th United States Secretary of State. He left office when Democrat Jimmy Carter became President in 1977. A proponent of “Realpolitik” Kissinger played a prominent tole in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. Kissinger continued to participate in policy groups, such as the Trilateral Commission and to maintain political consulting, speaking, and writing engagements. He is the founder and chairman of Kissinger Associated, an international consulting firm.

(Library of Congress Photo) President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, conversing, on the grounds of the White House

Browse other inductees: Louis Joseph Freeh Adolphus Busch Eric Braeden See All Inductees