He was as influential as he was controversial: American foreign policy expert Henry Kissinger is dead. “Young people and adults cannot simply switch to happiness mode.”

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died. The German-American died on Wednesday at the age of 100 at his home in the state of Connecticut, a spokeswoman for the communications agency Edelman, which represents his consultancy Kissinger Associates, confirmed to the German news agency late in the evening (local time).

The Nobel Peace Prize winner was a colorful figure in American politics, his specialty was secret diplomacy. He is considered one of the greatest diplomats of the 20th century. One of his greatest successes was the US rapprochement with China in the early 1970s. But Kissinger’s career also had dark sides. Critics accused him of unscrupulousness and an obsession with power.

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born in Franconia in 1923. He was 15 years old when his Jewish parents fled with him to New York. Kissinger never lost sight of his German roots and visited his birthplace Fürth several times. His rise is reminiscent of the idea of ​​the American dream: after school and military service, Kissinger studied at Harvard; later he taught there. In 1969, then-President Richard Nixon appointed him national security adviser and later Secretary of State. When it came to foreign policy, he was the most influential politician in Washington.

An important milestone in his career was the preparation for Nixon’s trip to China. Kissinger traveled to Beijing on a secret mission, paving the way for a Nixon visit and the normalization of the relationship. Kissinger became the celebrated architect of the US-China rapprochement. His diplomatic successes did not stop there. Kissinger negotiated disarmament treaties and peace agreements and became a media star.

Critics, on the other hand, see the foreign politician as a pure power politician. The role he played in the secret bombing of Cambodia is more than questionable. The accusations about his role in the 1973 military coup in Chile are also serious. Kissinger was also confronted again and again with the question of whether he was really pushing for an end to the Vietnam War and whether he was unnecessarily prolonging it to increase Nixon’s election chances.

Even after his time in Washington, Kissinger continued to intervene in world politics, for example by advising then-President George W. Bush. Even in old age he continued to comment on international topics in interviews and as a speaker. He made no move toward meeting his critics. (sda/dpa)