Fuerth
Kissinger celebrates his 100th birthday in his native Franconia
Henry Kissinger in Fuerth. photo
© Daniel Vogl/dpa
For years he was one of the really big pullers in world politics: Henry Kissinger. His 100th birthday was subsequently celebrated in a big way in his hometown of Fürth.
With high-ranking guests from politics and diplomacy and a children’s team from his favorite club Spvgg Greuther Fürth, the former US top politician Henry Kissinger celebrated his 100th birthday in his Franconian hometown.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the former US Secretary of State in a video message. “You have become one of the most influential shapers of world politics,” said the German head of state in the video that was recorded on Tuesday at the start of the ceremony in the Fürth City Theater.
Always part of his life
“It is very moving for me to go back to my place of birth and to find out how close the ties have remained between the place where I was born and my new home,” said Kissinger, who turned 100 on May 27. He told how he was in the theater for the first time 90 years ago and saw the opera “Fidelio”. “The memories of our youth have helped me through difficult times,” he said. “Fürth has always remained a part of our lives,” he said on behalf of his family.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) emphasized that Kissinger presented himself as a friend of the Germans, although as a member of a Jewish family he was a victim of the National Socialists. “You presented yourself as a special friend of Germany, in the most difficult times,” said Söder. In his speech, Springer CEO Matthias Döpfner described Kissinger’s love for Germany as “a miracle”.
Steinmeier also alluded to the former chief diplomat’s passion for football. Kissinger is one of the last contemporary witnesses who saw the Fürth soccer team win the German soccer championship. Kissinger was six years old at the time. In 1938, as the son of Jewish parents, he fled with his family from the National Socialists to the USA. After the Second World War, he regularly visited his native city.
Richard Nixon brought him into the White House
Kissinger first made an academic career in the USA. In 1969, Republican President Richard Nixon brought him into the White House as National Security Advisor. He later became secretary of state at the same time – and remained so under Nixon’s successor Gerald Ford. Kissinger coined the so-called shuttle diplomacy – traveling back and forth between capitals and negotiating between conflicting parties.
Among other things, the US Middle East policy of the 1970s will always be associated with the name of Kissinger. He has managed to make a foreign policy that is as clear as it is far-sighted, said Söder. But critics also accuse Kissinger of having implemented power politics without scruples in some cases, even without regard to human life, for example in crises in Vietnam or Chile.